Yao Emei is an author of books for both children and adults who has won awards such as the People’s Literature award, the Selection of Novella award, and the Shanghai Literature Excellent Novella Award. Her books have been translated from Chinese into English, Russian, German, Japanese, Korean, and other languages. Some of her works have earned a place on various annual lists including the Douban 2021 Annual Reading List. She lives in Shanghai.

Tilted Sky《倾斜的天空》, a young adult novel, is Yao's first book to be translated into English (tr. Kelly Zhang; originally published by China Children's Press & Publication Group in April 2014; English translation published by Levine Querido on June 11, 2024). Her critically-acclaimed contemporary adult fiction collection《家庭生活》The Unfilial: Four Tragic Tales from Modern China (tr. Honey Watson, Martin Ward, Olivia Milburn, Will Spence) was originally published by the People’s Literature Publishing House in January 2021 and published in English by Sinoist Books on September 28, 2024.