Monique Brinson Demery took her first trip to Vietnam in 1997 as part of a study abroad program with Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She was the recipient of a US Department of Education grant to attend the Vietnamese Advanced Summer Institute in Hanoi, and in 2003, she received a Master’s degree in East Asia Regional Studies from Harvard University. Demery’s first book, Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu was published in 2013. Demery lives in Chicago.