Yao Xiao is a writer and illustrator based in New York City. She is a MacDowell Fellow, and the author of graphic novel Everything Is Beautiful, And I’m Not Afraid, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. Her illustrations and writing have been published in The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Catapult, Lit Hub, and Autostraddle. Yao Xiao currently teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City where she lives and creates.