Sally Wen Mao is the author of The Kingdom of Surfaces (Graywolf, 2023), a finalist for the Maya Angelou Book Award, as well as the forthcoming Ninetails (Penguin Books, 2024). She is also the author of the poetry collections Mad Honey Symposium (Alice James Books, 2014) and Oculus (Graywolf Press, 2019), which was a finalist for the 2020 Los Angeles Book Prize in Poetry. The recipient of an NEA grant, a Cullman fellowship, a Shearing fellowship, and two Pushcart Prizes, Mao lives and teaches in New York City.