Jean KwokSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

Jean Kwok is an award-winning Chinese American novelist and New York Times bestselling author. Born in Hong Kong, she immigrated with her family to Brooklyn, New York, at age five. She spent much of her childhood working in a Chinatown clothing factory while attending school. Kwok earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and an MFA in fiction from Columbia University. She worked as a professional ballroom dancer before becoming a full-time writer. Trilingual in Chinese, Dutch, and English, she divides her time between the Netherlands and New York City. Her debut novel, “Girl in Translation” (2010) drew from her life and became a bestseller, winning the American Library Association Alex Award. Other works include “Mambo in Chinatown" (2014), "Searching for Sylvie Lee" (2019), and "The Leftover Woman" (2023).