Nghi Vo (born December 4, 1981) is an American author of short stories, novellas, and novels. Vo's fantasy novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune has received acclaim and won the Hugo Award for Best Novella and the IAFA Crawford Award.
Biography Vo was born in Peoria, Illinois, where she lived until attending college at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. In 2007 she moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan. She identifies as bisexual and queer.
Vo's first published short story was "Gift of Flight" in 2007, after which she published a number of short stories in various media. In 2020 Vo published the novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune, which won the Hugo Award for Best Novella and the 2021 IAFA Crawford Award. The book was also a finalist for the Locus and the Ignyte Award. This novella was the first entry in the Singing Hills Cycle, which comprises seven works as of 2026.
Her debut novel, The Chosen and the Beautiful, was published in 2021. The novel is a queer fantasy adaptation of The Great Gatsby. It reimagines the character of Jordan Baker as a woman of Vietnamese descent who was taken to Louisville as a young child and raised by a wealthy, white American family. In April 2025, she published Don't Sleep with the Dead, a companion novella more focused on Nick Carraway.
Vo's second novel, Siren Queen, an urban fantasy set in pre-Code Hollywood, was released in May 2022.
Awards Year Work Award Category Result . 2015 James Tiptree Jr. Award — 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards Fantasy 2021 Crawford Award — Hugo Award Novella Ignyte Awards Novella Locus Award Novella 2022 Locus Award First Novel Shirley Jackson Award Novelette When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain RUSA CODES Reading List Fantasy 2023 Into the Riverlands Hugo Award Novella Ignyte Awards Novella Lambda Literary Awards Speculative Fiction Locus Award Novella Mammoths at the Gates Nebula Award Novella Siren Queen Ignyte Award Adult Novel Locus Award Fantasy Novel World Fantasy Award Novel 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction Mammoths at the Gates Hugo Award Novella Locus Award Novella Ursula K. Le Guin Prize — World Fantasy Award Novella Hugo Award Novelette Locus Award Novelette World Fantasy Award Short Fiction 2025 Hugo Award Novella Locus Award Novella Locus Award Fantasy Novel Mythopoeic Award Adult Literature Ursula K. Le Guin Prize — Hugo Award Short Story Locus Award Short Story 2026 Locus Award Novella
Bibliography
Singing Hills Cycle novellas
The Chosen and the Beautiful
Standalone novels
Short fiction
References
External links