Lau Siew Mei was born and raised in Singapore. She is the author of two novels, Playing Madame Mao and The Dispeller of Worries, and a children’s illustrated middle grade book, Yin’s Magic Dragon. Her short stories have been broadcast on the BBC World Service and ABC Radio National, and published in Australia, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and the UK. She has been shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and Best Emerging Queensland Author in the QLD Premier’s Literary Awards, commended in the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, awarded Australia Council and Arts Queensland literary grants, a Varuna Residential Writers’ Fellowship and an Asialink Literature Residency in Malaysia. The Last Immigrant is her third novel.