About Nicole Mones
A newly launched textile business took Nicole Mones to China for the first time in 1977, after the end of the Cultural Revolution. As an individual she traded textiles with China for eighteen years before she turned to writing about that country. Her novels Night in Shanghai, The Last Chinese Chef, Lost in Translation and A Cup of Light are in print in more than twenty-two languages and have received multiple juried prizes, including the Kafka Prize (year’s best work of fiction by any American woman) and Kiriyama Prize (finalist; for the work of fiction which best enhances understanding of any Pacific Rim Culture). The Last Chinese Chef also won a World Gourmand Award as the year’s best Chinese cookbook (#1 in the U.S., #3 worldwide), even though it is a novel without a single recipe.
Mones’ nonfiction writing on China has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Gourmet, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, as well as overseas newspapers and magazines in Europe, South America and China. She is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
Prizes
- Writers League of Texas Book Award, finalist, Night in Shanghai
- Kiriyama Prize, finalist, The Last Chinese Chef
- Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for best work of fiction by any American woman, Lost in Translation
- World Gourmand Cookbook Award, Winner, The Last Chinese Chef (1st place in the U.S. and 3rd place worldwide)
- New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice, Lost in Translation
- Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Association Annual Book Award (best novel in five states), Lost in Translation
- Starred Reviews in Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly, Lost in Translation
- Book Sense Pick, Lost in Translation, A Cup of Light, The Last Chinese Chef
- Excerpted by Gourmet Magazine, The Last Chinese Chef