May-lee Chai is the author of eleven books, including the short story collection, Tomorrow in Shanghai and Other Stories, which was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and longlisted for The Story Prize; Useful Phrases for Immigrants: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 collection of short stories and essays, Glamorous Asians; 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.
Awards and honors include: the American Book Award (for Useful Phrases for Immigrants); National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Prose; Bakwin Award for Writing by a Woman; 2014 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature from APALA (Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association), Young Adult category for Tiger Girl; Kiriyama Prize 2008 Notable Book for Hapa Girl: A Memoir; Honorable Mention for the 2007 Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights Award for Hapa Girl: A Memoir; Sonora Review Essay Prize for her essay “The Imagined Homeland”; Jack Dyer Fiction Prize for her short story “Fish Boy”; 2022 Gulf Coast Prize in Nonfiction for her essay “Revolutionary Acts.” Her essay “The Blue Boot” was named a Notable Essay of 2012 in Best American Essays 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed, and her essay “Women of Nanjing /” was named a Notable Essay of 2020 in Best American Essays 2021 edited by Kathryn Schwartz and Robert Atwan.
Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including New England Review, Entropy, The Rumpus, The Offing, Catapult, Crab Orchard Review, Paris Review Online, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Glimmer Train, Kenyon Review Online, North American Review, Cincinnati Review MiCRo Series, ZYZZYVA, Missouri Review, Seventeen, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Dallas Morning News, Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Jakarta Post Weekender, Best Small Fictions 2020, the Bedford Introduction to Literature, and At Our Core: Women Writing on Power.
May-lee 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.
May-lee was born in California but has lived in fourteen states in the U.S. and four countries. She has walked to Burma from Xishuang Banna. She sat under a 1000-year-old pagoda but she did not attain enlightenment.
Hi May-Lee–This is Ms. O’Keefe, your teacher (and student) from SD. I have been working as high school librarian in Rapid City for past 18 years. Just purchased all your books so I can show our young writers what comes of hard work and integrity. I remember sharing some your short stories with an Augustana professor many years ago–and that woman I revered (now dead) said: “That young lady is an amazing writer.” I still have the fan you gave me–and you may be interested to know–after almost 30 years, I am returning to France for the summer. Will have to review all you taught me, but found great website at U of Texas, Austin. I am proud of you. Congratulations on your success.
Dear Mrs. O’Keefe,
Wow! It’s really good to hear from you!
I’m glad you’re doing well, and I hope the students in your high school appreciate you and your hard work on their behalf. I know I was very grateful to have you as my English teacher my senior year so many years ago…
You were very kind to me back in the day, and you’re still kind today.
Hope you have a great (return) trip to France! Bon voyage! 😉
May-lee
Dear May-Lee,
I just read The Witness in The Missouri Review, and experienced the wonderful combination of the familiar and the zingingly new that a great short story can bring.
Reading your bio has been fun too, as I was born in California and did my B.A. at Indiana University in Mandarin and French. And I’m also a fiction-writer. I hope our paths cross someday. Until then (and after too, no doubt) I’ll be following you with interest on Twitter.
Congratulations on everything.
Warmly,
Alison