Stacey Lee is the New York Times and Indie bestselling author of historical and contemporary young adult fiction, including The Downstairs Girl, a Reese’s Book Club YA pick, and her most recent novel, Luck of the Titanic, which received five starred reviews. She also writes belly-busting middle grade fiction with Rick Riordan Presents.
A native of southern California and fourth-generation Chinese American, she picked degrees at UCLA then UC Davis and practiced law for several years before retiring to start her real job writing books. Her books have been published in over a dozen countries, and have won the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association award, the PEN Center award for best YA, the Northern California Book Award, and the Golden Poppy Award and appeared on Cosmopolitan’s Best YA Books of All Time, and Parade Magazines’ Best YA, among others. She is a co-founder of the We Need Diverse Books movement and writes stories for all kids (even the ones who look like adults).
Stacey’s book The Downstairs Girl (Aug 2019) is a powerful novel about identity, betrayal and the meaning of family, set in the 19th century New South. Her recent middle grade series, Winston Chu vs. The Whimsies and Winston Chu vs. the Wingmeisters, is a modern retelling of a classic Chinese folktale. Stacey’s YA mystery Kill Her Twice, released Spring 2024.
“Stacey Lee is a fantastic speaker. The way she speaks about her books in a historical context is very compelling and enriching. I strongly recommend her as a speaker for libraries as she is a strong library supporter. The audience was engaged throughout the entire talk and library staff received positive feedback from attendees. One attendee said the Stacey Lee event was her favorite author talk that she’d ever attended!” — OC Public Libraries, 2024
