Tea (Bajraktarević) Obreht was born in Belgrade in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. She has written for The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Guardian, and her work has been published in the anthologies Best American Short Stories and Best American Casual Reading. The New Yorker has included her among the twenty best American writers under forty, as well as in the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" list. She is the winner of the Orange Award for Best Female Writer in 2011. She lives in New York.