C. B. Lee
Introduction
C. B. Lee is a Chinese-Vietnamese-American author of young adult fiction, best known for her Sidekick Squad series, about a powerless teen living in a world of superheroes.
Personal life
Lee's parents are immigrants from Vietnam and China. Lee is openly bisexual and also open about her struggles with mental illness.
Selected works
Her debut young adult novel, Seven Tears at High Tide, about a boy who gets rescued and falls for a selkie, was published by Duet Books in 2015. It won the 2016 Rainbow Award for Bisexual Fantasy & Fantasy Romance in 2016 and was a finalist for the 2016 Bisexual Book Award in the category Young Adult and Speculative Fiction.
The first book in the Sidekick Squad series, Not Your Sidekick, was published by Duet Books in 2016. It tells the story of Jess, a bisexual teen without superpowers living in a world where superpowers are normal, who has to compete with her town's infamous supervillain for her dream internship and deal with her crush on her best friend Abby. Not Your Sidekick was a finalist for the 2017 Lambda Literary Award in the category LGBTQ Children's/Young Adult and a finalist for the 2017 Bisexual Book Award in Speculative Fiction. The second book, Not Your Villain, following the protagonists from the first novel who have now joined a resistance movement, was published by Duet Books in 2017. A third book, Not Your Backup, will be published in 2019. Lee cites the X-men and wanting to write a story incorporating identity and alienation as inspiration for writing the series.
Lee also contributed a short story to Saundra Mitchell's yet-untitled follow-up anthology to All Out, to be published by Inkyard Press in 2020.
Awards
Won
2016
- Rainbow Award for Bisexual Fantasy & Fantasy Romance for Seven Tears at High Tide (Duet Books, 2015)
Nominations
2016
- Bisexual Book Award in Young Adult and Speculative Fiction for Seven Tears at High Tide (Duet Books, 2015)
2017
- Lambda Literary Award in the category LGBTQ Children's/Young Adult for Not Your Sidekick (Duet Books, 2016)
- Bisexual Book Award Finalist in Speculative Fiction for Not Your Sidekick (Duet Books, 2016)