Author Bio
Ka-Yee Essoe (劉家宜), Ph.D. (Psychology, UCLA; Psychiatry Postdoc, Johns Hopkins Medicine) is an assistant professor at a small, public university at rural Maine. As a cognitive neuroscientist specialising in learning enhancement, she understands the power of stories to instil empathy, resilience, joy, and hope. She began writing novels to do just that.
As an East Asian immigrant who enjoys many intercultural friendships, rich cultural diversity permeates the worlds and conflicts she crafts in her epic fantasy novels with integral love-story threads. Drawing on her personal experience and 10+ years mentoring others to navigate anxiety, disabilities, abuse, discrimination, trauma, and grief, her stories follow characters facing these struggles to encourage readers through their journeys and growth.
Her favourite writers are Jin Yong (金庸, which she would pronounce Guhm Yung) and Charles Dickens. She also enjoys the work of Agatha Christie (as translated into Chinese), Anne McCaffrey, C. S. Lewis, Timothy and Kathy Keller, and sometimes, especially on rainy days, Anne Rice and Jane Austen.
Join Ka-Yee’s Reader Circle to get the three opening chapters of Time Becomes Relevant.
She loves hearing from readers. Please feel free to reach out!
Upcoming Appearances
Playlist: Author Interviews
Other Works by Ka-Yee
Zethian, a nox assassin, returns from an oversea mission with loot enough to purchase his freedom from his owner—just to find Lioni, the reason he wants to be freed, has gone missing.
Nox for Naught is a 5600-word short story set in the world of The Unnamed Archives. This dark story with rays of hope was first published in the 2026 Jordan Con Anthology in April, 2026. Cover by JK Essoe.