Chloe Gong (born 16 December 1998) is a New Zealand writer of

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

. Her 2020 debut novel, ''These Violent Delights'', was a ''New York Times'' best seller.

Life and career

Gong was born in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, China, and moved to New Zealand with her family when she was two years old. She has a younger sister and brother. She was raised on the North Shore in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, New Zealand, and attended

Rangitoto College Rangitoto College is a state coeducational secondary school, located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. Serving years 9 to 13, Rangitoto has a school roll of as of making it the largest "brick-and-mortar" school in New Zealand (on ...

. While growing up in New Zealand, Gong was immersed in Chinese culture at home, speaking Shanghainese, cooking Chinese food, and celebrating Chinese holidays. Gong began writing books at the age of 13 using the Notes app on her

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...

. By December 2020, she had written nine books, about one

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

per year. In 2021, Gong graduated with a

double major A double degree program, sometimes called a dual degree, combined degree, conjoint degree, joint degree or double graduation program, involves a student's working for two university degrees in parallel—either at the same institution or at diffe ...

in English and International Relations at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. Gong wrote her 2020 debut novel, ''These Violent Delights'', in May 2018 after her freshman year of college. The book features a 1920s '' Romeo and Juliet''-esque storyline set in Shanghai. At the age of 21, Gong became one of the youngest writers to author a young adult hardcover on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. She won the Best Youth Novel at the 2021

Sir Julius Vogel Awards The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are awarded each year at the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science fiction fandom. They are commonly referred to as the ...

for ''These Violent Delights''. The sequel, ''Our Violent Ends'', was released in November 2021. In 2021, ''These Violent Delights'' was noted to be frequently discussed by the

BookTok BookTok is a subcommunity on the app TikTok, focused on books and literature. Creators make videos reviewing, discussing, and joking about the books they read. These books range in genre, but many creators tend to focus on young adult fiction, you ...

community on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

, which was associated with an increase in sales. Gong is also writing a spinoff duology that follows Rosalind, a character from the initial series. The first book of the spinoff duology, ''Foul Lady Fortune'', was released fall 2022. In November 2021, Gong announced her first adult fantasy trilogy, inspired by Shakespeare's '' Antony and Cleopatra'' and China's

Kowloon Walled City Kowloon Walled City was an ungoverned and densely populated ''de jure'' Imperial Chinese enclave within the boundaries of Kowloon City, British Hong Kong. Originally a Chinese military fort, the walled city became an enclave after the New ...

. The first book of the trilogy, ''Immortal Longings'', was released in summer 2023.

Bibliography

''These Violent Delights'' series

* ''These Violent Delights'' (2020) * ''A RomaJuliette Christmas Special'' (2020) (short story) * ''Our Violent Ends'' (2021)

''Foul Lady Fortune'' series

* ''The Priest and the Shepherd'' (short story) (2022) * ''Foul Lady Fortune'' (2022) * ''Foul Heart Huntsman'' (2023) * ''Last Violent Call'' (novella collection, contains the novellas ''A Foul Thing'' and ''This Foul Murder'') (2023) * ''In True Delights'' (short story) (2023)

''Flesh and False Gods'' series

* ''Immortal Longings'' (2023)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gong, Chloe Living people 1998 births Writers from Shanghai 21st-century New Zealand women writers New Zealand novelists New Zealand women writers New Zealand women novelists Chinese emigrants to New Zealand People educated at Rangitoto College People from North Shore, New Zealand University of Pennsylvania alumni