It won the Printz Honor award in 2021 and was a finalist for the National Book Awards 2020 for Young People's Literature. It is based on interviews with her relatives, as well as letters from her nisei grandparents who, although American citizens from San Francisco, were incarcerated as teens at Topaz War Relocation Center during the war due their ethnicity. Selected works Sea of Ink and Gold trilogy (2016-2020) Ĭhee's book We Are Not Free is a work of historical fiction about Japanese-American teenagers during World War II facing forced relocation and imprisonment at the Japanese-American internment camps, or segregated military service in war-torn Europe. The Pitch Wars led her to obtain a literary agent and publishing deal with Putnam for her first book The Reader. Chee was paired up with author Renée Ahdieh.

After obtaining her masters degree, Chee entered a writing contest called The Pitch Wars, which gives new writers a chance to show their work to literary agents by pairing them up with established mentors.

Education and career Ĭhee studied literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and earned a Master of Arts degree from San Francisco State University. Chee is fourth-generation Japanese American and resides in California where she grew up.

Traci Chee is an American author of young adult fiction, best known for the Sea of Ink and Gold trilogy and We Are Not Free. UC Santa Cruz, San Francisco State UniversityĢ020 National Book Award, Young People’s Literature Finalist, 2021 Printz Honor

The reader book traci chee