Leslie Li is the author of the novel Bittersweet (Tuttle Publishing), the culinary memoir Daughter of Heaven (Arcade Publishing), and Just Us Girls (Four Seasons Press), the official companion book to her forthcoming feature-length documentary, The Kim Loo Sisters, currently in post-production.

Her awards include the 2023 Big Moose Prize, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship in Fiction, and grants from the Freeman Foundation, New York State Council for the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Chinese Heritage Foundation. The Kim Loo Sisters was one of the five finalists in The Paley Center for Media Doc Pitch in 2015 and was given private preview screenings in Washington, DC, Chicago, New York, the Twin Cities, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Boston.

Her personal essays and feature articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Gourmet, Saveur, Travel & Leisure, Garden Design, Modern Maturity, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, and other print and online publications.

Her début novel and culinary memoir have been translated into five languages. She lives in New York City.