Stacey Lee author page

Stacey Lee biography

Stacey Lee is an American author of historical and contemporary fiction for children and young adults. She graduated from UCLA before earning a law degree from UC Davis School of Law and practised law for several years before becoming a full-time writer. Lee is also a co-founder of the We Need Diverse Books movement, which campaigns for greater representation in children’s publishing.

Her debut novel, Under a Painted Sky, was published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers in 2015. Set in 1849, it follows Chinese American musician Samantha and Annamae, an enslaved girl, as they travel west disguised as boys. The novel received the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award and was selected for the American Library Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list.

Lee’s second novel, Outrun the Moon, is set around the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and follows Mercy Wong, a Chinese American teenager determined to secure an education. It won both the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Young Adult Literature and the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction. Her later historical novels include The Downstairs Girl, a Reese’s Book Club YA selection set in 1890s Atlanta, Luck of the Titanic, about British Chinese twins aboard the Titanic, and the 1930s Los Angeles murder mystery Kill Her Twice.

Lee has also written for younger readers. Winston Chu vs. the Whimsies, published by Rick Riordan Presents in 2023, reimagines a Chinese folktale through a contemporary fantasy adventure and was followed by Winston Chu vs. the Wingmeisters. Her historical gothic mystery Heiress of Nowhere was published by Sarah Barley Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, in March 2026.