Grace Lin grew up in Upstate New York with her parents and two sisters. While the other sisters became scientists, Grace became an artist. Surprisingly enough, being an artist was not Grace’s first choice. She first dreamed of being a champion ice skater, and drew many pictures of herself twirling and dancing on the ice. Unfortunately, Grace had neither the talent nor coordination to make it to skating stardom. However, the pictures she drew of herself held much promise and quickly became Grace’s career focus.

After attending the Rhode Island School of Design, Grace quickly set out to achieve her dream of creating children’s books. Her first book, THE UGLY VEGETABLES, was published in 1999 and was quickly heralded. Grace followed that success with the publication of over a dozen more books, including DIM SUM FOR EVERYONE! and BRINGING IN THE NEW YEAR. Grace’s first middle grade novel, THE YEAR OF THE DOG was released to glowing praise in 2006. Her novel WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON was awarded the 2010 Newbery Honor, chosen for Al Roker’s Today Show Kid’s Book Club and was a NY Times Bestseller. Grace’s early reader LING & TING was awarded with the Theodor Geisel Honor in 2011 and her picture book A BIG MOONCAKE FOR LITTLE STAR was awarded the 2019 Caldecott Honor. 

Grace is an advocate for diversity in children’s literature. She was an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio and created the video essay, “What to do when you realize classic books from your childhood are racist?” for PBSNewHour. Grace also delivered the popular TEDx talk, “The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf.” Grace  currently co-hosts the Book Friends Forever podcast with her friend and editor Alvina Ling. Grace truly believes, “Books erase bias, they make the uncommon everyday, and the mundane exotic. A book makes all cultures universal.”

To that end, when the cover illustration for her novel WHEN THE SEA TURNED TO SILVER (a 2016 National Book Award Finalist) was displayed at the White House, Grace, herself, was recognized as a Champion of Change for Asian American and Pacific Islander Art and Storytelling.  In 2022, the American Library Association awarded Grace the  Children’s Literature Legacy Award, the award that honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children through books that demonstrate integrity and respect for all children’s lives and experiences. In 2025, Grace received an honorary doctorate degree from her alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design and exhibited a career retrospective of her work “The Art of Grace Lin: Meeting a Friend in an Unexpected Place” at the Eric Carle Museum of Picturebook Art.

Grace now lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with her husband, daughter and a fluctuating amount of chickens.