Vanessa Hua is the author of the national bestselling novels A River of Stars and Forbidden City; the story collection Deceit and Other Possibilities, a New York Times Editors' Choice; and Coyoteland. A former longtime columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, her award-winning work has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Atlantic. She has filed stories from China, Burma, South Korea, Panama, and Ecuador. She teaches at the Warren Wilson MFA Program, Sewanee Writers Conference, and elsewhere. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.