Tess Uriza Holthe is a Filipino-American writer born and raised in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California. She is best known for her critically acclaimed and nationally bestselling novel, When the Elephants Dance. This novel is, in part, inspired by her father's experiences as a young boy in the Philippines during World War II.

Her second book, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, was recognized as a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2007 and an ALA Notable Book of 2007. It is a collection of linked stories that take readers onto the 5:45 train to Cannes, weaving through northern Italy to the French Riviera and touching on the lives of various characters in unexpected and secretive ways.