Xiran Jay Zhao is a first-generation immigrant to Canada from small-town China (which, for China, means a town of 4 million people). A recent graduate from Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, they wrote sci-fi and fantasy books while they probably should've been studying more biochemical pathways. They are in a cow suit because they made a promise to their friends 7 years ago that they would take their author photo in it if they actually got published, and they are not going back on that promise