Steph Cha (born 1986) is a

Korean American Korean Americans () are Americans of full or partial Korean ethnic descent. While the broader term Overseas Korean in America () may refer to all ethnic Koreans residing in the United States, the specific designation of Korean American impli ...

novelist and fiction writer, who has released three novels in the

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

genre about her detective protagonist Juniper Song: ''Follow Her Home'' (2013), ''Beware Beware'' (2014), and ''Dead Soon Enough'' (2015). Her most recent book, stand-alone crime fiction novel ''Your House Will Pay'' (2019), won the ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize for Mystery.

Background

Cha was born in

Van Nuys, California Van Nuys ( ) is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Van Nuys City Hall, Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley ...

in 1986. She subsequently grew up in

Encino, California Encino is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. History Etymology The name Encino is the misspelling in masculine of Encina, the Spanish language, Spanish word for "holm oak” (Quercus ilex). The Spanis ...

with her mother, father and two younger brothers. She attended

Harvard-Westlake School Harvard-Westlake School is an independent, co-educational university preparatory day school in Los Angeles, California, with about 1,600 students in grades seven through twelve. The school has two campuses: the middle school campus in Holmby ...

Studio City Studio City is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 19 ...

. Cha graduated from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, where she studied English and East Asian Studies, and also completed a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degree from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

Work

Novels

In 2013, Cha published her first Juniper Song mystery, ''Follow Her Home'' (2013) with Minotaur Books, an imprint of

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishe ...

and

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

. The book has received positive reviews from the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'', ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', ''

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

'', ''

Hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with t ...

'', ''

KoreAm Journal ''KoreAm'', or ''KoreAm Journal,'' was a monthly print magazine published from 1990 to December 2015. It was dedicated to news, commentary, politics, lifestyle and culture published in the United States. It was the oldest and most widely circulat ...

'', and other publications. The sequel ''Beware Beware'' (2014) was published the following year in 2014, also by Minotaur Books. The third novel in the series, ''Dead Soon Enough'' was published by Minotaur Books in 2015.

Other Writing

Cha also has published freelance book reviews and food writing for the ''

'' (serving as a restaurant scout and a protégé of sorts for ''LA Times'''

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

winning food critic

Jonathan Gold Jonathan Gold (July 28, 1960 – July 21, 2018) was an American food and music critic. He was for many years the chief food critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and also wrote for ''LA Weekly'' and ''Gourmet'', in addition to serving as a regular ...

),Sabra Embury, THE RUMPUS INTERVIEW WITH STEPH CHA, The Rumpus, January 2, 2015
Therumpus.net
/ref> humor pieces for ''Trop Magazine'' and a short story entitled "Treasures in Heaven" in the Winter 2013 Fiction Issue of the ''

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 201 ...

''.Steph Cha, Other Writing
Bystepcha.wordpress.com
/ref> Cha has also written more than 2,400 reviews on

Yelp Yelp Inc. is an American company that develops the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publishes crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. It also operates Yelp Guest Manager, a table reservation service. It is headquartered in S ...

, according to a ''Los Angeles Times'' interview,Ivy Pochoda, Steph Cha talks about the L.A. immigrant noir of 'Dead Soon Enough', August 11, 2015
Los Angeles Times
/ref> and has held the "Elite" reviewer title for more than six years in a row, according to an interview with ''

The Rumpus ''The Rumpus'' is an online literary magazine founded by Stephen Elliott (author), Stephen Elliott, and launched on January 20, 2009. The site features interviews, book reviews, essays, comics, and critiques of creative culture as well as origi ...

''.

Bibliography

Novels

Juniper Song mysteries

* * *

Other novels

Short stories

*"Treasures in Heaven" (''

'', Winter 2013)

Awards

References

External links

Steph Cha's Official SiteSteph Cha Interview in The RumpusMacMillan Author Page for Steph Cha
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cha, Steph Stanford University alumni Yale Law School alumni 21st-century American novelists American writers of Korean descent Living people 1986 births American novelists of Asian descent 21st-century American women writers