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. As well as being an American Booksellers Association's "Pick of the List" and one of Bank's Street College Best Books of the Year, The Ugly Vegetables was nominated for the California Young Reader Children's Choice Award and named a Growing Good Kids Book Award Classic.

Grace followed that success with the publication of over a dozen more books, including Dim Sum for Everyone!, Fortune Cookie Fortunes, and Olvina Flies. Her book Robert's Snow became the inspiration for the cancer-fighting fundraiser, Robert's Snow: For Cancer's Cure. Most recently, Grace's first children's novel, The Year of The Dog was released with glowing praise.

Grace lives in Somerville, MA with her husband Robert Mercer.

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