Thai Nguyen (pronounced Tie-Win), born in My Tho, learned to sew at the age of nine sitting in on classes at his parents’ sewing school in Saigon, Vietnam. In 1993, the family immigrated to the United States, where Thai is now a fashion designer, based in Orange County, California. His designs, for clients such as Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande, Kelly Marie Tran, Ali Wong, Katherine McPhee, and Cindy Crawford, have been featured in top publications and have graced the red carpets of the Met Gala, the Oscars, the Grammys, and film and television premieres. Thai’s love of the áo dài, this iconic symbol of Vietnam, has been and will continue to be the wellspring for all his creations. Mai’s Áo Dài is his debut picture book.

When Monique Truong (pronounced Trurn) was six years old, she came to the United States as a refugee from S. Vietnam. She and her family then lived in North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas. She is the bestselling author of The Book of Salt, which was a New York Times Notable Book, a PEN/Robert W. Bingham Fellowship winner, a Stonewall Book Awards – Barbara Gittings Literature Award winner, among countless others. She is also the author of Bitter in the Mouth, which received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, and The Sweetest Fruits, named a best fiction of 2019 by Publishers Weekly. Her home is now in Brooklyn, New York, where she writes novels and libretti, always cooks enough to have leftovers, and takes long afternoon naps. She was also once a lawyer with degrees from Columbia Law School and Yale College. Mai’s Áo Dài is her debut picture book.

Dung Ho (pronounced Dzung) is the illustrator of the New York Times bestselling picture book Eyes That Kiss in the Corners, Eyes that Speak to the Stars, Me and Ms. Too, The Mindy Kim books, and many others. Born and raised in Hue, Vietnam, she worked in the design and advertising industries before discovering a great passion for illustration and picture books and becoming a freelance illustrator. She lives and works in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.