Nguyen Phan Que Mai,
Vietnam/Kyrgyzstan

Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is an award-winning writer in both Vietnamese and English, author of twelve books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Her novels, The Mountains Sing and Dust Child have been praised for their authentic depictions of Vietnamese history and culture. Both books are international bestsellers and have received The BookBrowse Best Debut Award, the International Book Awards, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, the Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for Fiction, the She Reads Best Historical Fiction Award, as well as Runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Quế Mai’s writing has been translated into more than twenty languages. She has a PhD in Creative from Lancaster University. She regularly performs Vietnamese poetry and storytelling around the world to promote Vietnamese culture and literature. She was named by Forbes Vietnam as one of twenty inspiring Vietnamese women of 2021.