Lisa See

About

Lisa See is an American novelist of Chinese American heritage, born in Paris in 1955 and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her family history and connections to Los Angeles’s Chinatown have strongly influenced her writing, which often explores Chinese culture, women’s experiences, family relationships, and the tensions between tradition and modernity. Before becoming a novelist, See worked as a journalist and columnist, developing an interest in Chinese American history and cultural identity. Her best-known works include Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), which explores female friendship and the secret women’s language of nineteenth-century China, and Peony in Love (2007), a historical novel about love, opera, and women’s lives in Qing dynasty China. Her novel The Island of Sea Women (2019) follows two women divers on the Korean island of Jeju across decades of political upheaval and personal tragedy. Through richly researched historical fiction, See brings overlooked women’s stories to life while examining loyalty, resilience, cultural memory, and the enduring bonds between generations.