About the Author c
home

Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut was born in Hue, Viet-Nam, in 1962—a year before her sister Kim. When her parents decided to attend graduate school in Michigan, the family moved to the US in 1968 (apple blossoms amidst cherry trees; tornadoes chasing blizzards; Man on the Moon in the Age of Aquarius; combat zones and draft resistors; and Cassius Clay becomes Muhammad Ali). Three years later, they moved again, this time to France (the awakening: Voltaire, Sartre and Pablo Neruda).

After finishing high school in Gray, France, she went back to the US to attend university, while Kim decided to study physics in Paris. Thanh-Van earned a B.A. in Math and Physics from Whitman College and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

                                                                                                                                     

She worked several years in France for various computer companies before deciding to follow up on the wild idea of Kim’s of writing a detective story set in 17th century Viet-Nam. The main character, Mandarin Tan, is inspired by the mythologized figure of one of Thanh-Van and Kim’s ancestors who succeeded in the imperial examinations as a young man. Their first story, Le Temple de la Grue ecarlate (The Temple of the Scarlet Crane) was published by Editions Philippe Picquier in 1999. L’Ombre du prince (The Prince's Shadow) followed in 2000. The third book, La Poudre noire de Maitre Hou (Master Hu's Black Powder, 2001), was based on a scenario by the two sisters and written by Thanh-Van. From then on, the stories are entirely Thanh-Van's work: L’Aile d’airain (The Bronze Wing, 2003), L’Esprit de la renarde (Spirit of the Vixen, 2005) and Les Travers du docteur Porc (Doctor Pork hogs the limelight, 2007). 

In 2009, two new releases: Le Banquet de la Licorne (The Chimera Banquet), the 7th adventure of Mandarin Tan, and Le Palais du Mandarin (The Palace of the Mandarin), a collection of short stories.  La Femme dans le miroir (The Woman in the Mirror), a novel about obsession and deceit, set in modern-day Paris, was released in 2010.

Les Corbeaux de la Mi-automne (The Crows of Mid-Autumn), released in 2011,  tells of ancient legends and revived tensions between Viet-Nam and China. 

The adventures of Mandarin Tan have been translated into Italian, Japanese,  Spanish, Russian, German and Vietnamese.  

The short story Pique-assiette from Le Palais du Mandarin was translated by William Rodarmor (The Plate Raider) and  appears in his book French Feast: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Whereabouts Press, June 2011).

The first chapter of L’Aile d’airain was translated into English by William Rodarmor under the title Con Tinh: The Edge of Dreams and published in Saint Petersburg Review, issue 6, December 2013.

The first chapter of L’Esprit de la Renarde was translated into English by Jean Anderson and published in the Australian Journal of Crime Fiction, Special Issue 2015.

Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut is the 2014 French writer in residence at the Randell Cottage in Wellington.  The Randell Cottage Writers  Residency is a cultural programme run by the Embassy of France to New Zealand and the Randell Cottage Writers Trust, in partnership with the New Zealand - France Friendship Fund and Creative New Zealand. 

Kawekaweau, published in 2017 by Au Vent des Iles, is the result of her writing residency at Randell Cottage.

Two Seasons and Countless Treasures, her report written in English, was published in the October 2014 issue of Capital Magazine.

Voyagers, a short story written in English, was published in the November 2014 issue of  the New Zealand Journal of French Studies.





1