Aimee Phan was born and raised in Orange County, California. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop where she won a Maytag Fellowship. Her first book, WE SHOULD NEVER MEET was named a Notable Book by the Kiriyama Prize in fiction and a finalist for the 2005 Asian American Literary Awards. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today and The Oregonian. She is currently an Assistant Professor in English at Washington State University.

"An unsentimental, profoundly persuasive portrait of ordinary people making the best of extraordinary, almost irresistible tragedy."
-Elle

"There is nothing more satisfying for readers than having an author take them to a place they think they know, and then showing them how very little they actually do."
-The Hartford Courant

"Phan's strong, eloquent tales finally give voice to the children, and the people around them, who are forced to live with the consequences of loss-loss of family, country, culture, and hope."
-Seattle Weekly

"Luminously written....For many thousands, the war endures in lasting ways that have been long overlooked, and it is these Phan's book illuminates."
-The Oregonian

"[Phan's] point is powerfully made and brings light to a controversial time in our history....Not only does Phan present the material in an intriguing, unexpected manner, she also takes advantage of the outright drama of the subject matter, but without diving deep into tepid melodrama."
-New City

"Graceful, spare....Phan unswervingly captures the cruelty of children who have themselves been cruelly treated and the grief, denial and alienation created by loss....A wrenching, poignant collection laced with pity and terror."
-Publishers Weekly

"The linked stories that make up this dynamic debut are spare in their approach but profoundly observant....[An] unassuming but hard-edged travelogue which memorably shows the ways humans bob and weave against ever-present alienation."
-Booklist

"Stylistically, WE SHOULD NEVER MEET is a marvel....While these eight stories are connected, the links are subtle and at times ambiguous. The dexterity with which the author handles the interconnectedness of her characters' lives is matched by her skill at writing unfettered by sequence. Each of these stories moves freely back and forth between past and present, and the order in which the stories are presented is somewhat chronological, but not entirely. Yet never, not once, does the clarity of the narrative suffer."
-The Asian Reporter