Final Preparations for Parallax

As we head towards the final hours before Parallax this Friday there are a few exciting things to report:

Our MC for the evening will be the always energetic young writer/artist Katie Vang! We're very happy to have her with us. You can visit her myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/emptyyks

Thanks, Katie!

As we've mentioned before, this is the beginning of a unique free monthly reading series of Hmong and Lao writers and we're happy to be a part of it!

On a personal note, while many of the poems that will be presented in my lineup are going to be a surprise, one thing that will definitely happen at this event is a special reading of my poem 'Hunting the Asian American Male' as a moment of solidarity in light of recent anti-Asian murders across the country out of the hope that one day, we won't need poems like this one.

On a lighter note, in the good news department, we do hope to have many of the poems from this reading up and available online by the end of the weekend for our out-of-town fans.

Thanks again to everyone who's been so supportive during the entire planning process and who've helped to get the word out about this great project! It's very appreciated!

New Videos Up

While getting ready for the upcoming Parallax reading on Jan. 26th at the Loft, Pacyinz Lyfoung and I had the chance to add some new videos up over at Youtube.

The new batch in particular reflects the thin line between my work as an Asian American poet and a poet working within speculative literature- the pieces can be easily read both ways, and even in third and fourth ways.

Whorl and Imperious both first appeared in Hyphen Magazine in 2006:

Pacyinz Lyfoung, in the meantime, is continuing her work approaching Hmong history from a woman's point of view, discussing the war for Laos and her elders:

Here, she discusses the challenges and experiences as a refugee:

We're looking forward to seeing everyone who can join us on the 26th! And a special shout-out to the Loft Literary Center and Kundiman for posting nice bits about us recently! Also, as a sidenote, I've now got a page on myspace at www.myspace.com/thaoworra if you feel like stopping on by.

2006 In Review + Warm Thank Yous

My copy of Papertiger: New World Poetry just arrived, and it's really fun. You have to search a little to find my poem To A Chinese Horse Behind Minneapolis Glass, but it's there, and it feels great to be part of an innvoative project like this. Papertiger is produced with support from the Queensland government in Australia. I have to admit, it's really fun to reach a truly international readership and I look forward to seeing more from them.

Other great books, magazines and journals my work appeared in during 2006 include:

Hyphen Magazine, who featured my poems Whorl and Imperious. A special thanks to Barbara Jane Reyes in particular for selecting my work.

Bakka Magazine who featured Boun, Jaew, and The National Library In Laos in their premiere issue. Thanks to editor and publisher Tutu Phimviengkham and her talented staff at one of the newest Laotian literary magazines in the world.

Outsiders Within, who featured my poem Evolve. Thanks to Jane Jeong Trenka, Sun Yung Shin and Julia Chinyere Oparah.

Tales of the Unanticipated ran my poems Soap, An Archaeology of Snow Forts and Homonculus, as well as my short story The Dog At The Camp. Thanks to Eric M. Heideman and Rebecca Marjesdatter.

Dark Wisdom has printed two non-fiction pieces of mine about the Plain of Jars in Laos and the Spirit City of Xieng Khuan. Thanks go to the cryptic forces that be over at those shadowed offices.

G-Fan magazine printed a massive 8-poem collection of mine, The Kaiju and I, in their 75th issue: Song of the Kaiju, Biollante, Kaiju Haiku, Mothra, Destroy All Monsters, Why Did Rodan Travel To The West?, Ghidrah, and Gojira Walking.

A very special nod goes to editor J.D. Lees, who personally hand-typed all of them into the issue. Thanks, J.D.!

Whistling Shade, always a great Minnesota journal, ran my poem A Question of Place. Thanks go to Joel Van Valin for keeping at it year after year!

Tripmaster Monkey printed tons of my stuff, from the history of Asians in Science Fiction and James Bond Movies to a survey of monsters from Asia and more! Thanks, Mai, Matt & the rest of our mad monkey colleagues!

Asian American Press also printed numerous articles of mine as well, and deserve a thanks for their continuous support throughout the years! Thanks to Tom LaVenture and Ngui Huynh for putting Asian American Press out week in, week out.

Poetry Midwest printed my piece The Daughters of Barrabas . Thanks and a tip of the hat to editor Matthew W. Schmeer.

The humor journal Defenestration, always a guilty favorite of mine, printed my piece Cobra. Thanks as always to Andrew Kaye and the Elm Tree.

The FHF Calendar also included an excerpt of mine from five fragments entiteld Reconstruction In Minnesota. It also features art by the amazing Laotian American artist Malichansouk Kouanchao.

You can of course also find examples of my speculative poetry in the special e-book collection, Monstro, produced for Diversicon 13.

Numerous examples of my experimental work also appeared over at Northography at http://www.northography.com and of course, I've also uploaded performances of several poems of mine over at Youtube.

Earlier in the year, op-eds of mine appeared in the Pioneer Press, Hmong Today, Asian American Press and even the Daily Telegram in Michigan's Lenawee county. (Which was curiously picked up in excerpt by Epoch Times, a Chinese American newspaper. Thanks!

And we can't forget Ed Lin for putting on the microfestival Sex and No Sex which saw the New York one-night only debut of my adults-only play Black Box. As always, check out his novel Waylaid, if you get a chance. He needs the massive royalties, you know.

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A special thanks goes out to The Loft Literary Center, The Hmong American Writer's Circle,The University of Minnesota Institute For Advanced Study, Kate Kysar and the Anoka Ramsey Community College, the Camden Coffee Company, The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and HaSEACC, Gustavus Adolphus College, Dreamhaven Books, MAASU as well as CONvergence, Arcana: A Convention of the Dark Fantastic and Diversicon for bringing me in to read throughout various points of the year. It's greatly appreciated and I look forward to the next time!

I'll definitely call 2006 a good year. And thanks again to all of my friends, family and editors who helped make this possible. And to my nefarious enemies who tried to stop me, bwa ha ha ha ha. Just kidding. ;)