Traci Chee Books in Order

Traci Chee grew up in San Francisco's Richmond District and has long been drawn to stories, books, and the physical stuff of reading. She studied literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, then earned a master's degree at San Francisco State University.

Before publishing fiction, Chee was the kind of reader who kept coming back to children's and young adult books. While studying adult literature and classics in college, a classmate's comment about her energetic voice helped her notice that she had drifted away from the fantasy stories she loved most.

That realization sent her back toward YA fiction.

Chee's first novel, The Reader, grew from her interest in libraries, literacy, grief, and adventure stories with outlaws at their center. It was also her first attempt at writing a novel. After working on the manuscript, she entered Pitch Wars, received mentorship and revision help, and eventually found an agent. The Reader arrived in 2016 and became a New York Times bestseller.

The book launched the Reader Trilogy, also known as Sea of Ink and Gold. Set in a world where reading is controlled by a powerful few, the trilogy follows Sefia, a young woman searching for answers about her family, and Archer, a boy carrying the damage of a violent past. Readers who like layered fantasy will find secret histories, pirates, shifting points of view, puzzles on the page, and big questions about who gets to hold power.

Stories about reading matter a great deal in Chee's work.

With We Are Not Free, she moved into historical fiction. The novel follows fourteen Japanese American teens from San Francisco during the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in World War II. Chee drew inspiration from her own family's history, and the book gives its large cast room for humor, friendship, conflict, fear, and hard choices. It was a National Book Award finalist and received a Printz Honor.

Chee returned to fantasy with A Thousand Steps into Night, a Japanese-influenced quest about Miuko, a girl cursed to become a demon. It has gods, monsters, a magpie spirit, and plenty of trouble, but it is also about finding out that the life others planned for you may not fit. Kindling takes a different route into fantasy, following seven young former soldiers after a war has ended and asking what survival looks like afterward.

Her books often put young people under pressure, then make space for loyalty, anger, hope, and the choices that shape a life. Chee lives in California with her dog. Outside writing, she enjoys hiking, egg painting, gardening, and game nights with family and friends. She also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at the University of Nevada, Reno.