J. D. Kiff was born on the very far south side of Chicago, the fifth of ten children in a working-class family. She began life as a student of India and worked as an in-house international investment manager for many years. In more recent years, she lived and worked in China, teaching university classes in English and Economics. Having lived in India and China for extended periods, she knows a lot about living in worlds strange to her. Through it all, she has written stories, always aspiring to be a true writer.