Thanhha Lai was born in Vietnam. At the end of the war, she fled with her family to Alabama. There, she learned English from fourth graders. She then spent the next decade correcting her grammar. Starting her writing life as journalist, she worked at The Orange County Register. She switched to fiction, leading to an MFA from New York University and short story publications in various journals and anthologies. HarperCollins will publish her debut YA novel, Papaya Wishes, in Winter 2011. Lai lives with her husband, daughter and a little white dog in New York City.