Minfong Ho

Minfong Ho was born in Burma and grew up in Thailand. In 1980, during the massive influx of refugees from Cambodia, Ms. Ho became a relief worker in the refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border, where she helped set up a feeding program for malnourished children.

The child of Chinese immigrants, Ms. Ho grew up in a family that was forced to move several times because of political turmoil. This experience enabled her to empathize deeply with the Khmer refugees when she wrote The Stone Goddess. 

Minfong Ho has studied at Tunghai University in Taiwan and at Cornell University, where she earned a B.A. and and M.F.A. She now lives in Ithaca, New York, with her husband and their three children.

From the dust jacket of the Stone Goddess

A writer in St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers explained that Ho "creates a world of great beauty and gentleness, with loving family relationships and ancient customs. But she also creates a world of poverty, drought, dreadful injustice, starvation, and death. Her protagonists are set between these two visions, but in that situation they discover their pride, integrity, and determination to love the land and overcome injustice."From authorsguild.net

You can read a full biography and view additional photos at authorsguild.net.

In the Author's Own Words

Although I write in English, my first language was Chinese. Because my parents are from China they praised me, scolded me, told me long bedtime stories and recited poetry to me all in Chinese. No wonder then, that I think of Chinese as the language of my heart. As I grew older, I absorbed Thai from interacting with people in the busy streets and marketplaces and temple fairs of Bangkok. Thai for me is a functional language and I think of it as the language of my hands. Only much later did I learn English from strict teachers in school, and so I think of English as the language of my head. From authorsguild.net