Ava Chin, a 5th generation New Yorker,is the author of the award-winning Mott Street, a recipient of the 2024 Best Book Award from the Chinese American Librarians Association, and Eating Wildly, which won the 2015 M.F.K. Fisher Book Award for excellence in food writing. Mott Street, an ALA Notable Book and one of People magazine’s top books by Asian American authors, was a Best Book of the year by TIME, the San Francisco Chronicle, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Elle. Chin is the recipient of fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, NYFA, the NY Institute for the Humanities, AAWW, and MacDowell. She is Professor of Creative Nonfiction and head of the CUNY Graduate Center’s American Studies program. The Huffington Post named her one of "9 Contemporary Authors You Should Be Reading."