[Poet Spotlight] Do Nguyen Mai

Do Nguyen Mai is a Vietnamese-American poet and musician living in the Los Angeles area. Her work has been published in the Rising Phoenix Review, and her debut poetry collection is Ghosts Still Walking was released in 2016 from Platypus Press, which is a 2017 Elgin Award nominee for Book of the Year.

In her collection there are a great many poems to admire, with my personal favorites including "Knitting Needles," "Firestorm" and her brief "Devour," whose imagery definitely lingers for any of us with roots in the Southeast Asian diaspora. I'm definitely looking forward to her follow-up, which hopefully won't be too long from now.

In what little free time she has, she can be found researching Southeast Asian history, ranting about current Southeast Asian political events, and teaching Vietnamese to young children.   She's the ambitious founder and editor-in-chief of Rambutan Literary, which is now accepting submissions for its fourth issue:

Do Nguyen Mai wears many hats, as writers are wont to do, including serving as the social media manager for The Fem and previously helped the journal Half Mystic in a similar capacity.Whether awake or asleep, she often dreams of a day when her family will have a home to return to.

Don't miss Ghosts Still Walking.