Diem Nguyen was born in Saigon, South Viet Nam and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. She studied biology and in the Writing Seminars creative writing program at Johns Hopkins University, received her medical degree from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and performed her residency in obstetrics/gynecology at Magee-Womens Hospital. She published her first story in a college literary magazine, Anagram, which she co-created, edited, and funded, and is now unsurprisingly defunct, then several scientific articles in obscure journals on the role of keratin 16 in epidermal bullosa simplex, and finally, a short story in the Winter 2021 edition of Ploughshares. She is also an avid cyclist. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband, three children, and a mini goldendoodle.