Shelley Parker-Chan

Shelley Parker-Chan is a non-binary, Australian fantasy novelist best known for their debut novel, She Who Became the Sun, and its sequel, He Who Drowned the World, which form The Radiant Emperor Duology.

Early life and career

Parker-Chan was born in New Zealand to a Malaysian-Chinese mother and a white father. They were raised in Australia, where they felt disconnected with their racial identity and with the stereotypical representation of Asian characters in fiction. They say in interview: "I was raised very much by a tiger parent in a part of Adelaide with a large Chinese, Malaysian and Southeast Asian Chinese population. I was a scholarship kid and I went to a posh private school where my peers were all the offspring of doctors and lawyers, and I was pushed to also become a doctor or lawyer and achieve high results. So I feel I grew up in a very classically second- generation middle-class Asian way, but I was definitely not perceived as Asian."

When they moved to Asia as a young adult, they discovered Asian dramas, and began to understand that "...Asians could be any and every kind of character: the heroes, the villains, the love interests, warriors, scholars."

They did graduate work on the subjects of war crimes and restorative justice, and worked as a diplomat, representing the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Timor-Leste, and as an international development adviser for gender equality and LGBTQ rights in Indonesia, before becoming a writer. Their interest in writing novels began with romantic fan fiction, and a desire for better queer representation in literature.

In 2021, Mantle Books published She Who Became the Sun, which became a Sunday Times Number 1 bestseller, won several awards, and has been translated into 15 languages. This was followed in 2023 by He Who Drowned the World, which concludes the Radiant Emperor duology.

Personal life

Parker-Chan uses they/them pronouns, is queer and genderqueer, and was named after Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. As of 2023, they live in Melbourne, Australia. They are married and have a daughter.

Awards

Parker-Chan won the 2022 Astounding Award for Best New Writer and the British Fantasy Award (the Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel and the Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer).