Tao Lin is an American author. He writes poetry, short stories, essays, nonfiction books, and novels. He graduated from New York University in 2005 with a degree in journalism. His first book was a poetry-collection titled "you are a little bit happier than i am," published in 2006 by Action Books. It was the winner of Action Books' December Prize. His next five books were published by Melville House. After that, he moved to a larger publishing company, Penguin Random House, who published his novel Taipei in 2013 and his nonfiction book Trip in 2018. His next novel, Leave Society, is forthcoming in 2021.