Charmaine Craig

Charmaine Craig’s new novel, Miss Burma, is based on the true story of her mother who became Burma’s first Miss Universe contestant at age 15, married a general, and ruled in his stead after he was assassinated. Miss Burma was long-listed for the 2017 National Book Award and was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, and an Indie Next List selection. Her first novel, The Good Men, was a national bestseller and was translated into six languages.

Craig studied literature at Harvard College, received her MFA from the University of California at Irvine, and serves as a faculty member in the Department of Creative Writing at UC Riverside, where she teaches literature, the art of the paragraph, and forms of narration. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughters.

Miss Burma, said The New York Times, has “passages of exquisitely precise description.” Elle magazine raved, “Like many of the best books, Miss Burma feels rooted in its time and place, while also laying bare timeless questions of loyalty, infidelity, patriotism, and identity.”