Thi Bui was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States as a child. She grew up listening to the Beatles and Paul Simon on vinyl records and cassette tapes, and she still remembers the feel of the carpet where she would kneel to make mixtapes. She studied art and legal studies and at one point wanted to be a civil rights lawyer, but got her head on straight and became a public school teacher instead. Bui lives in Berkeley, California, with her son, her husband, and her mother. “The Best We Could Do” is her debut font.