Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her first novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, won the 2003 Asian American Literary Award and the 2003 American Library Association Alex Award. Her second novel, The Buddha in the Attic, was a Finalist for the National Book Award 2011 and won the 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the 2011 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction. The Buddha in the Attic was an international bestseller and the winner of the prestigious Prix Femina étranger 2012, and the Albatros Literaturpreis 2013. Her third novel, The Swimmers, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction in 2023. She lives in New York City.