Ru Freeman is an award-winning author, journalist, and editor. She was born in Sri Lanka and immigrated to the United States in her teens. Her debut novel, A Disobedient Girl, was published in 2009 and won the 2010 Asian American Literary Award for Fiction. Her other works include On Sal Mal Lane, Unclaimed Terrain, and A Season of Migration. She has also written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. Her writing focuses on themes of identity, displacement, and the immigrant experience. She is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Southern California.