Marie Lu

Lu was born in 1984 in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China, and later moved to Beijing.^[2] In 1989, she and her family moved to the United States in Texas when she was five years old,^[3] during the Tiananmen Square Protest.^[4] She grew up between Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Houston, learning English by writing stories.^[5] She attended the University of Southern California, where she studied political science and biology, and interned as an artist at Disney Interactive Studios.^[5][6][7]

Lu currently lives in the Arts District of Los Angeles with her husband, their son (born 2019) and three dogs.^[5][8]

Lu's debut novel, Legend, was published November 29, 2011 as the first of a young adult science fiction trilogy. Lu has said that she was inspired by the movie Les Miserables and sought to recreate the conflict between Valjean and Javert in a teenage version.^[9] Two other books in the planned trilogy, Prodigy and Champion, were published in 2013.^[10]

Lu's first fantasy series began with publication of The Young Elites on October 7, 2014.^[11] It was followed by The Rose Society on October 13, 2015, and The Midnight Star on October 16, 2016.

Lu and her husband, Primo Gallanosa, worked together on a game called Fuzz Academy, which was shut down after being hacked.^[5]