Steph Cha is a

Korean American Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...

novelist and fiction writer, who has released three novels in the

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

genre about her detective protagonist Juniper Song, ''Follow Her Home'' (2013), ''Beware Beware'' (2014) and ''Dead Soon Enough'' (2015). Her most recent book is the stand-alone crime fiction novel, ''Your House Will Pay'' (2019), which won the LA Times Book Award.

Background

Cha was born in

Van Nuys, California Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, ...

in 1986. She subsequently grew up in

Encino, California Encino (Spanish language, Spanish for "oak") is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. History In 1769, the Spanish Portolá expedition, first Europeans to see inland areas of California, traveled north t ...

with her mother, father and two younger brothers. She attended Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City. Cha graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where she studied English and East Asian Studies, and also completed a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

Work

Novels

In 2013, Cha published her first Juniper Song mystery, ''Follow Her Home'' (2013) with

Minotaur Books St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

, an imprint of

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

and

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...

. The book has received positive reviews from the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'', ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'', ''

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

'', ''

Hyphen Magazine ''Hyphen'' is an American print and online magazine, founded in 2002 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area journalists, activists, and artists including Melissa Hung, a former reporter for the ''Houston Press'' and ''East Bay Express''; Claire Lig ...

'', '' KoreAm Journal'', and other publications. The sequel ''Beware Beware'' (2014) was published the following year in 2014, also by Minotaur Books. The third novel in the series, ''Dead Soon Enough'' was published by Minotaur Books in 2015.

Other Writing

Cha also has published freelance book reviews and food writing for the ''

'' (serving as a restaurant scout and a protégé of sorts for LA Times' Pulitzer-Prize winning food critic

Jonathan Gold Jonathan Gold (July 28, 1960 – July 21, 2018) was an American food critic and music critic. He was for many years the chief food critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and also wrote for ''LA Weekly'' and ''Gourmet'', in addition to serving as a ...

),Sabra Embury, THE RUMPUS INTERVIEW WITH STEPH CHA, The Rumpus, January 2, 2015
Therumpus.net
/ref> humor pieces for ''Trop Magazine'' and a short story entitled "Treasures in Heaven" in the Winter 2013 Fiction Issue of the ''

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...

''.Steph Cha, Other Writing
Bystepcha.wordpress.com
/ref> Cha has also written more than 2,400 reviews on

Yelp Yelp Inc. is an American company that develops the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publish crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. It also operates Yelp Guest Manager, a table reservation service. It is headquartered in San Fra ...

, according to a ''

'' interview,Ivy Pochoda, Steph Cha talks about the L.A. immigrant noir of 'Dead Soon Enough', August 11, 2015
Los Angeles Times
/ref> and has held the "Elite" reviewer title for more than six years in a row, according to an interview with ''

The Rumpus ''The Rumpus'' is an online literary magazine launched on January 20, 2009. The site features interviews, book reviews, essays, comics, and critiques of creative culture as well as original fiction and poetry. The site runs two subscription-base ...

''.

Bibliography

Novels

Juniper Song mysteries

* * *

Other novels

Short Stories

*''Treasures in Heaven'' (

, Winter 2013)

Awards

References

External links

Steph Cha's Official SiteSteph Cha Interview in The RumpusMacMillan Author Page for Steph Cha
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cha, Steph Stanford University alumni Yale Law School alumni 21st-century American novelists American writers of Korean descent Living people 1986 births American novelists of Asian descent 21st-century American women writers