Nguyễn.Phan.Quế Mai author page

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai biography

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is a Vietnamese novelist, poet and translator who writes in Vietnamese and English. She has published thirteen books spanning fiction, poetry and non-fiction, and holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. Her Vietnamese poetry has received honours including the Hanoi Writers Association’s Poetry of the Year Award in 2010 and first prize in a poetry competition marking 1,000 years of Hanoi.

Her first international book, The Secret of Hoa Sen, was published by BOA Editions in 2014 as part of the Lannan Translations Selection Series. The bilingual poetry collection was translated into English by Quế Mai with poet Bruce Weigl. She has also translated Vietnamese literature into English and English-language works into Vietnamese.

The Mountains Sing, published by Algonquin Books in the US in 2020 and Oneworld Publications in the UK, was her debut novel and her first book written directly in English. Set across decades of Vietnamese history, it follows Trần Diệu Lan and her granddaughter Hương as their family experiences famine, political upheaval and the Việt Nam War. The novel received the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award and was runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction.

Her second English-language novel, Dust Child, was published by Algonquin Books and Oneworld Publications in March 2023. Moving between the Việt Nam War and its aftermath, it connects the lives of two Vietnamese sisters, an Amerasian man and an American veteran. Dust Child was named a finalist for the 2024 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.