Nicole Mones (born 1952) is an American novelist and food writer. As of May 2007[update], she has published three novels, entitled Lost in Translation, which appeared in 1998, A Cup of Light (2002), and The Last Chinese Chef, released May 2007. Lost in Translation won the 2000 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize awarded by the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies and the Department of English at the University of Rochester for best work of fiction by an American woman, and also the Pacific Northwest Annual Book Award, a five-state prize. "The Last Chinese Chef" was the only American finalist for the international Kiriyama Prize and also a World Gourmand Award winner in the Chinese cookbook category, although it is a novel with no recipes. Mones' novels have been translated into at least 17 languages. She also contributes articles about Chinese cuisine to Gourmet magazine, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.
Mones did business in China for 18 years from 1977, running a textile concern, and all three of her published novels are set mainly in China. In all of them, a love story is entwined around a detailed and accurate description of a facet of Chinese culture: in Lost in Translation, the heroine becomes involved in an archaeological expedition to find the remains of Peking Man; the action of A Cup of Light turns around a rare collection of Chinese porcelain; and The Last Chinese Chef, as its name suggests, features Chinese cuisine.
Mones currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
Information drawn from: