Traci Chee is an American author 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 ...

, best known for ''the

Sea of Ink and Gold The Sea of Ink and Gold trilogy is a three-part young adult fantasy novel series written by Traci Chee, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers. The trilogy includes the following books: ''The Reader'' (2016), ''The Speaker'' (2 ...

'' trilogy and ''

We Are Not Free ''We Are Not Free'' is a young adult historical fiction novel by Traci Chee, published September 1, 2020 by HMH Books for Young Readers. ''TIME'' included it on their list of the 100 best young adult novels of all time. Reception Reviews ''W ...

''. Chee is fourth-generation

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

and resides in California where she grew up.

Education and career

Chee studied literature and creative writing at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

, and earned a Master of Arts degree from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

. After obtaining her masters degree, Chee entered a writing contest called The Pitch Wars, which gives new writers a chance to show their work to literary agents by pairing them up with established mentors. Chee was paired up with author

Renée Ahdieh Renée Ahdieh is an American-Korean author, best known for her ''New York Times'' best-selling series ''The Wrath & the Dawn''. Her books have been translated into many languages. Life Renée Ahdieh spent her first years of childhood growing up ...

. The Pitch Wars led her to obtain a literary agent and publishing deal with Putnam for her first book ''The Reader''.

Selected works

Sea of Ink and Gold trilogy (2016-2020)

''Sea of Ink and Gold'' trilogy is a work of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

about a world in which no one knows about books and reading. In addition to multiple plot lines and a story-within-a-story, the book contains several

cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

s for the reader to discover and decode. The books appeared on

The New York Times Best Seller list ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

''We Are Not Free'' (2020)

Chee's book ''We Are Not Free'' is a work of

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

about

Japanese-American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asia ...

teenagers during World War II facing forced relocation and imprisonment at the Japanese-American internment camps, or segregated military service in war-torn Europe. It is based on interviews with her relatives, as well as letters from her ''

nisei is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants (who are called ). The are considered the second generation, ...

'' grandparents who, although

American citizens Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...

from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, were incarcerated as teens at

Topaz War Relocation Center The Topaz War Relocation Center, also known as the Central Utah Relocation Center (Topaz) and briefly as the Abraham Relocation Center, was an American concentration camp which housed Americans of Japanese descent and immigrants who had come t ...

during the war due their ethnicity. It won the Printz Honor award in 2021 and was a finalist for the National Book Awards 2020 for Young People's Literature.

''A Thousand Steps into Night (2022)''

''A Thousand Steps into Night'' is a Japanese-influenced fantasy about

demons A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, anime, ...

, adventure, and plans gone awry. It was longlisted for the National Book Awards 2022 for Young People's Literature.

Bibliography

'': * ''The Reader,'' Putnam, September 13, 2016 * ''The Speaker,'' Putnam, November 7, 2017 * ''The Storyteller,'' Putnam, November 13, 2018 ''

'',

HMH Books for Young Readers Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...

, September 1, 2020 ''A Thousand Steps into Night'',

Clarion Books HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...

, March 1, 2022

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chee, Traci Living people Women writers of young adult literature Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women writers American women children's writers American children's writers American writers of Japanese descent American young adult novelists American women writers of Asian descent