Lan Cao (1961 - ) is the author of the 1997 novel Monkey Bridge and is a professor of law at the College of William and Mary.
Cao was born in Vietnam and experienced the Vietnam War as a civilian. She moved to the United States when she was 13. Cao received her B.A. in political science from Mount Holyoke College in 1983 and her J.D. from the Yale University law school.
Monkey Bridge is the semi-autobiographical story of a mother and daughter who leave Vietnam to come to the United States. It is considered to be "the first novel by a Vietnamese American about the war experience and its aftermath" .