I have created this page students who are working on school projects, presentations, and reports about my life and work as a poet. I hope this page will provide you with the information you are looking for to complete your school assignment. If you want to read more, please feel free to check out my Interviews/Press page where you will find more about my life and writing.

• I grew up in Fresno, California.
• I am Hmong.
• My parents are refugees from Laos. They fled to refugee camps in Thailand after the end of the Vietnam War/Secret War in 1975. In the early 1980s, they were resettled in St. Paul, Minnesota. After living there for a couple of months, they moved to Fresno, California where I was born shortly thereafter.
• Growing up, English was not my first language. At home, I spoke Hmong, but when I went to school, I spoke English. I lived in two worlds trying to balance being Hmong and American at the same time. If you want to learn more about my childhood experiences and the struggles I went through, there are two specific essays you can read:
  • espnW: Learning endurance and balance from my refugee parents
  • Academy of American Poets: Writing from the Absence: Voices of Hmong American Poets
  • Txhawb Hmong Magazine (2015 issue): My Hmong-American Reflection [Click on the 2015 issue, and then scroll to page 54. You can zoom in with your browser if it appears too small on the screen.]
• Education: I left home at 17 years old to go to college. I attended the University of California, Berkeley where I received my Bachelor’s degree in English. Many years later, I earned my Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University where I studied Creative Writing and Poetry.
• Before I went to study at poetry Columbia University, I directed a youth organization where the focus was to help young people tell their stories through writing, journalism, and other media (such as photography, videography, and etc). I did this job for about six years. I also helped out in my local Hmong community and worked with young Hmong women to develop their leadership skills. I participated in a lot of community projects, one that also included being part of a group called the Hmong American Writers’ Circle (our mission is to nurture creative writing in the Hmong community). For me, my work in poetry is very much tied to my love for the community. I think these two go together.
• One of the reasons I became a poet was to write about my community, the Hmong community. Not many people know who we are, and I wanted to tell our stories. I also wanted to tell my own story. I grew up with a passion for reading and writing even though English was not my first language. I loved going to libraries. I loved reading books and stories. I was also loved writing little poems as a young girl.
• In high school, one of my English teachers introduced me to poetry. She taught me how to seek meaning from a poem. And even then, when I could not understand what a poem was attempting to say, she taught me how to be okay with not knowing. I fell in love with poetry then.
• Even though I did not live through the Secret War, it is very much part of my historical and cultural identity. Some of my poems explore the war.
• Currently, I am an Assistant Professor of English in Creative Writing at Fresno State. I teach in the MFA program.
• Outside of writing, I enjoy spending time with my family, visiting art museums, collecting gemstones and crystals, and exploring the wide, wide Universe and all of its stars.
• Some of my favorite poets include: Pablo Neruda, Yusef Komunyakaa, Adrienne Rich, Lucie Brock-Broido, Evie Shockley, Alejandra Pizarnik, Ada Limón, and so many more!

Thanks again for your interest in my work!