Since winning a Scholastic Award in 1981, May-Lee Chai has written and published eleven books, ranging from short story collections to fiction and memoirs.

The Scholastic Awards kicked off a career full of accolades for Chai, including the American Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Best Young Novel. Today, May-Lee Chai’s stories are studied nationwide in high school and college literature courses.

After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in French and Chinese Studies from Grinnell College, Chai worked as a reporter for The Associated Press. Here, she covered the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, which led to a lifetime of writing stories that fought against harmful Asian-American stereotypes. Chai’s latest book published in 2022, Tomorrow in Shanghai, chronicles the Chinese-American experience from her childhood in the 1970s to the present. She has published numerous articles and short stories in newspapers and magazines such as the Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, The New York Times, and more.

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