Photo taken by May Xiong

Dear reader!I'm Carolyn, an author, screenwriter, playwright, retired tech worker (thank goodness), and a MFA drop out.My work focuses on Vietnamese American identity, messy women who never learn from their mistakes, diasporic witches of the west coast, and tall-tales my mother would tell me in a humorous way.After living up and down the west coast, I've resettled in Los Angeles with my husband and my chaotic dog. When I'm not writing, I daydream of having iced coffee on a rooftop or hopping on the back of a scooter in Ho Chi Minh City.My debut novel THE FORTUNES OF JADED WOMEN is out now from Atria and was a Good Morning America book club pick. My second book, THE FAMILY RECIPE -- also with Atria, is forthcoming April 1, 2025.

Good Morning America sept 22 pick

Everyone in Orange County’s Little Saigon knew that the Duong sisters were cursed.It started with their ancestor Oanh who dared to leave her marriage for true love—so a fearsome Vietnamese witch cursed Oanh and her descendants so that they would never find love or happiness, and the Duong women would give birth to daughters, never sons.Oanh’s current descendant Mai Nguyen knows this curse well. She’s divorced, and after an explosive disagreement a decade ago, she’s estranged from her younger sisters, Minh Pham (the middle and the mediator) and Khuyen Lam (the youngest who swears she just runs humble coffee shops and nail salons, not Little Saigon’s underground). Though Mai’s three adult daughters, Priscilla, Thuy, and Thao, are successful in their careers (one of them is John Cho’s dermatologist!), the same can’t be said for their love life. Mai is convinced they might drive her to an early grave.Desperate for guidance, she consults Auntie Hua, her trusted psychic in Hawaii, who delivers an unexpected prediction: this year, her family will witness a marriage, a funeral, and the birth of a son. This prophecy will reunite estranged mothers, daughters, aunts, and cousins—for better or for worse.A multi-narrative novel brimming with levity and candor, The Fortunes of Jaded Women is about mourning, meddling, celebrating, and healing together as a family. It shows how Vietnamese women emerge victorious, even if the world is against them.

praise/media for FORTUNES

A whip-smart family dramedy about estranged siblings competing to inherit their father’s Vietnamese sandwich franchise and unravel family mysteries.

Duc Tran, the eccentric founder of the national Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc’s Sandwiches, has decided to retire. With the help of the shady family lawyer, he informs his five estranged adult children that to get their inheritance, they must revitalize run-down shops in undesirable, old-school Little Saigon locations across Houston, San Jose, New Orleans, and Philadelphia—within a year. The only one without a shop is the bachelor son, but if he gets married before the year’s up, the inheritance goes to him.Each daughter is stuck in a new city they don’t want to be in, battling gentrification, declining ethnic enclaves, messy love lives, and struggling to modernize their father’s American dream. The son wonders if he wants to marry for love or for money. As Duc’s children continue to work, family mysteries begin to unravel along the way as they learn the real intention behind the inheritance scheme.The Family Recipe is about rediscovering one’s roots, different types of fatherly love, familial legacy, and finding one’s place in a divided country where the only commonality among your neighbors is the universal love of sandwiches.

My third book, THE DEPARTMENT OF ARRANGED ENTANGLEMENTS was just announced and is forthcoming from Atria (again!) in 2026.It's deranged as hell, so I hope you all enjoy!