Imbolo Mbue is a Cameroonian American novelist and short story writer based in New York City. She is renowned for her debut novel, Behold the Dreamers (2016), which earned her the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Blue Metropolis Words to Change Award. Her literary works often draw from her personal experiences as an immigrant, as well as the experiences of other immigrants.

Mbue is a native of Limbe, Cameroon. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University. She has been a resident of the United States for over a decade.

Her second novel, How Beautiful We Were, revolves around a fictional African village's struggle against an American oil company and was recognized by the New York Times as "One of the 10 Best Books" of 2021. Her works have been translated into more than twenty languages.