Thanhha Lai
Thanhhà Lại was born in Vietnam. At the end of the war, she fled with her family to Alabama. There, she learned English from fourth graders and then spent the next decade correcting her grammar. Starting her writing life as a journalist, she worked at The Orange County Register. She switched to fiction, leading to an MFA from New York University and short story publications in various journals and anthologies. Then came Inside Out & Back Again, a National Book Award and Newbery Honor-winning verse novel based in part on her childhood as a refugee in Alabama. Next was Listen, Slowly, another middle grade novel featuring a young Vietnamese-American girl. Butterfly Yellow is her first YA novel. Her debut picture book is Hundred Years of Happiness, illustrated by Phung Nguyen Quang and Huynh Kim Lien.
Her latest book is When Clouds Touch Us, the long-awaited sequel to Inside Out & Back Again. When Clouds Touch Us is out May 9th, 2023.
Thanhhà lives with her husband, daughter and a little white dog just north of New York City.
To stay updated about Thanhhà's writing, visit www.thanhhalai.com and follow her on social media:
Twitter: twitter.com/ThanhhaLai
Instagram: instagram.com/thanhha_lai
“Being stubborn won't make you fluent. Practicing will! The more mistakes you make, the more you'll learn not to.”
“I hate being told I can't do something because I'm a girl!”
“Whoever invented Englishshould have learnedto spell.”
“This year I hopeI truly learnto fly-kicknot to kick anyoneso much asto fly.”
“No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama."-Inside Out and Back Again”
“Mother says,People sharewhen they know they have escaped hunger.Shouldn't people sharebecause there is hunger?”
“Oh, my daughter,at times you have to fight, but preferably not with your fists.”
“People living on others' goodwill cannot afford political opinions.”
“Would be simpler if Englishand lifewere logical”