May-lee Chai is the author of eleven books, including the forthcoming (August 2022) collection of short stories, Tomorrow in Shanghai and Other Stories; three novels, My Lucky Face, Dragon Chica, and Tiger Girl; the novella, Training Days; two works of memoir, The Girl from Purple Mountain (co-authored with her father, Winberg Chai) and Hapa Girl, A Memoir; the American Book Award–winning short story collection Useful Phrases for Immigrants; Glamorous Asians, a collection of short stories and essays; a nonfiction book about the culture and history of China, China A to Z (also co-authored with Winberg Chai); and her translation into English of the Chinese author Ba Jin’s 1934 Autobiography (Ba Jin Zi Zhuan). Her own books have been translated into German, Hebrew, and Chinese.
May-lee Chai is a writer and educator. Her writing has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, Bakwin Award for Writing by a Woman (selected by Tayari Jones), Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, named a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book, and recipient of an honorable mention for the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights Book Awards. Her short prose has appeared widely, including in Seventeen, New England Review, Longreads, Paris Review Online, Los Angeles Times, Best Small Fictions, and cited as Notable in two editions of the Best American Essays anthology. May-lee served as Guest Fiction Editor for Shenandoah, Vol. 72, No. 1. Read her Editor’s Note here. May-lee serves on the Board of Directors of the National Book Critics Circle.
In addition to her books, she has published numerous short stories in journals, magazines and anthologies as well as essays and journalism. Her work has appeared in various publications, including The Boston Globe/The Emancipator,The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Paris Review Online, Kenyon Review Online, New England Review, Gulf Coast, North American Review, ZYZZYVA, Missouri Review, Seventeen, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Dallas Morning News, Denver Post, Jakarta Post Weekender, and numerous anthologies, including Best Small Fictions.
May-lee was born in California but has lived in fourteen states in the U.S. and four countries. She received her B.A. from Grinnell College, where she majored in French and Chinese Studies. She received her first M.A. from Yale University in East Asian Studies and a second M.A. in English-Creative Writing from the University of Colorado-Boulder. She received her M.F.A. from San Francisco State University.
