Zen Cho

Zen Cho
At MCM London Comic Con, 24 October 2025
Born	1986 (age 39–40) Selangor, Malaysia
Education	University of Cambridge
Occupations	Author, lawyer
Writing career
Language	English
Period	2015–Present
Genres	Speculative fiction Romance
Notable works	Spirits Abroad Sorcerer to the Crown Black Water Sister
Notable awards	Crawford Award (2015) BFA–Newcomer (2016) Hugo–Novelette (2019) Ray Bradbury Prize (2021)
Website	zencho.org

Zen Cho (born 1986) is a Malaysian fantasy author. She is known for her Sorcerer to the Crown series. She was the joint winner of the 2015 Crawford Award for her short story collection Spirits Abroad. The expanded edition of Spirits Abroad: Stories received the 2021 Ray Bradbury Prize.

Background and education

Zen Cho was born in Selangor, Malaysia. She spent a brief period of time in the United States as a child, but was raised in Malaysia. She moved to the United Kingdom at 18 to attend university, where she met her husband. Cho earned a law degree from University of Cambridge.

Career

Cho began publishing genre fiction in 2010. Many of those stories were republished in her debut short story collection, Spirits Abroad, originally published by Fixi Novo in 2014. The book won the 2015 Crawford Award in a tie with The Angel of Losses by Stephanie Feldman.

In 2013, she was a finalist for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer.

Cho's debut novel, Sorcerer to the Crown, was published in 2015 by Ace Books. The book is the first of a series of historical fantasy novels. It won the 2016 British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer. It was a finalist for the 2016 Locus Award for Best First Novel. The novel's sequel, The True Queen, was published by Ace Books in 2019. The series was listed as "One of NPR’s 50 Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade".

Her novelette "If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again", published by the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, won the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

Spirits Abroad: Stories, expanded edition, was published in August 2021 by Small Beer Press. The collection contains nine additional stories, including novelettes “The Terracotta Bride” and “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again”. It was a finalist for the 2022 Locus Award. The book was awarded the 2021 Ray Bradbury Prize by the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Personal life

Cho lives with her family in Birmingham, United Kingdom, where she works as a lawyer.

Awards