Born in Guangzhou, China, in 1996 and raised in Dallas, Texas, after immigrating to the United States at age four, Rebecca F. Kuang writes fantasy and literary fiction under the name R. F. Kuang. She began her debut novel, The Poppy War, at nineteen during a gap year in China spent coaching competitive debate, and published it shortly before turning twenty-two. A trained historian of modern China, she holds a BA in History from Georgetown University, an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford, both completed as a Marshall Scholar, and has pursued a doctorate in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where her research addresses Sinophone and Asian American literature. Her work moves across genres, from the grimdark military fantasy of the Poppy War trilogy (2018 to 2020) to the dark academia of Babel (2022), the publishing satire Yellowface (2023), and Katabasis (2025). Babel won the Nebula and Locus Awards, and Kuang has also received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. Her next novel, Taipei Story, is scheduled for 2026.
