R. F. Kuang (born May 29, 1996) is a Chinese-American novelist, translator, and academic known for blending speculative fiction with incisive examinations of colonialism, racism, academia, and institutional power. Born in Guangzhou, China, and raised in the United States, she studied at Georgetown, Cambridge, and Oxford before pursuing doctoral studies at Yale. She is the author of the acclaimed Poppy War trilogy as well as the bestselling novels Babel, Yellowface, and Katabasis. Her work has earned major literary honors, including the Nebula Award for Best Novel for Babel, and established her as one of the most prominent contemporary voices in speculative and literary fiction.