Maureen McHugh grew up in the Midwest and has lived in New York City; Austin, Texas; the People’s Republic of China; and Los Angeles, California. Her first novel, China Mountain Zhang, a dystopian story set in a China-dominated future, was a New York Times Notable Book and won the James Tiptree Jr. Award. Her most recent collection of short stories, After the Apocalypse, was one of Publishers Weekly’s Ten Best Books of 2011. She currently lives in Los Angeles and teaches Interactive Storytelling at the University of Southern California.