i.b. casey cui was born in a badass beach town in Southern California, and her ancestors hail from Madrid, Bilbao, Xiamen, and the western coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

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She earned her BA at UC Berkeley, where she studied human society and its social problems while taking cool courses like Tagalog and Pedagogy of Movement. At Mills College, she engaged in fiction and nonfiction writing workshops and was teased about kinda-sorta minoring in journalism with the undergrads, as well as serving as the tennis team's practice partner. She graduated with an MFA in English literature and creative writing.