Photograph of a Chinese American woman leaning back against the railing of a wooden bridge. She is wearing a black dress and bat necklace, and she is smiling at the camera. The background is blurred water and greenery.

©Katy Weaver Photography

Kelsea Yu is a Taiwanese Chinese American writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and children. Whether through a speculative or real-world lens, her writing explores diaspora identity, twists on folklore, complicated interpersonal relationships, and characters who make unconventional choices.

Kelsea’s novella, Bound Feet (Cemetery Gates Media), was nominated for a 2022 Shirley Jackson Award. Her debut novel, It’s Only a Game, is published by Bloomsbury Children’s, and her next novella, Demon Song, is forthcoming from Titan Books in 2025. She has stories published in magazines such as Clarkesworld, Apex, PseudoPod, and Fantasy, and in various anthologies. Her nonfiction has been published in Nightmare, Apparition Lit, Sarah Gailey’s Personal Canons Cookbook, and elsewhere.

Kelsea is an active member of SFWA, HWA, and ITW, as well as a first reader for the Ignyte Award-winning and twice Hugo Award-nominated magazine, khōréō. Find her on Instagram or Twitter @anovelescape. She is represented by Jennifer Azantian of Azantian Literary Agency.