Vyvyane Loh was born in Ipoh, Malaysia and moved to Singapore with her family when she was five. Besides her rigourous schooling in Singapore, she studied ballet (Royal Academy of Dance syllabus and exams) , the piano (Royal Academy of Music), and Speech/Drama (Trinity College). She spent a brief period in Canterbury, Kent, before starting college at Boston University where she double-majored in Biology and Classics. While in college, she developed an interest in creative writing and began writing poetry. A highlight of her college years was her summer in Sligo, Ireland at the International Yeats School where she was honoured and delighted to meet and be in a workshop led by Seamus Heaney.

After graduation she attended Boston University Medical School and in her clinical rotations, she arranged to do medical electives in Brazil (Vitória, north of Rio; Belém at the mouth of the Amazon River) and Nepal (Kathmandu). She also arranged her schedule such that all her vacation time fell in the last months of school, skipped graduation and spent almost four months studying dance and drumming in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

This idyllic period was followed by a residency in Internal Medicine where she "worked like a dog, slept like a log when off-duty, and had [her] social life in a bog." She did, however, manage to start writing fiction. Vyvyane eventually became Chief Medical Resident at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and after her residency, worked in a Free Care clinic catering primarily to immigrant Brazilians and in private practice in Newton.

For various personal reasons she soon left her career in medicine, accepted a full scholarship to Warren Wilson College's prestigious MFA programme in Creative Writing and worked up to four jobs (spinning/aerobics instructor, personal trainer, dance instructor, moonlighting doctor) while pursuing her MFA. She recalls her time at Warren Wilson College as "one of the most productive and magical times of my life". Her mentors there included Peter Turchi, Andrea Barret, C.J. Hribal, Kit McIlroy and Claire Messud, all of whom were instrumental in guiding her through the first draft of her novel.

After graduation from Warren Wilson College, Vyvyane signed with the Kneerim and Williams Agency (formerly Hill and Barlow) at Fish and Richardson's in Boston. Her agent, Brettne Bloom, placed her novel with WW Norton where Vyvyane had the pleasure and privilege of working with her editor, Carol Houck Smith, in preparing her novel for publication.

Vyvyane currently writes, choreographs and moonlights as a physician. Breaking the Tongue, a historical novel set in Singapore during WW II, is available from WW Norton in bookstores.