Author Information:

Dr Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is an award-winning writer in both Vietnamese and English. Her eight books of poetry, short fiction and non-fiction in Vietnamese have received some of Vietnam's top literary awards including the 2010 Poetry of the Year Award from the Hanoi Writers Association, the Capital’s Literature & Arts Award, and First Prize in the Poetry Competition celebrating 1,000 Years of Hanoi. Her debut novel and first book in English, THE MOUNTAINS SING, is an International Bestseller, a New York Times Editors' Choice Selection, Winner of the 2020 BookBrowse Best Debut Award, a Finalist of the Audie 2021 Best Audiobook of the Year Award, Winner of the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for "a work of exceptional quality" and for "contribution to peace and reconciliation", among others. The novel has been named a best book of 2020 by more than ten media establishments including NPR and the Washington Independent Review of Books. Quế Mai is the translator of seven books published in Vietnam and the United States, and has received the Vietnam Writers Association’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advancement of Vietnamese Literature Overseas. As a social activist, she founded the Chắp Cánh Ước Mơ volunteer group to assist children with cancer and two scholarship programs to provide opportunities for disadvantaged children to continue their schooling. In her roles as a consultant to UN organisations in Vietnam, she designed communications strategies to help combat human trafficking and child labor. She currently divides her time between Indonesia and Vietnam. Her journalism regularly appears in major Vietnamese newspapers. For more information, visit www.nguyenphanquemai.com