This Saturday I'll be traveling to Merced to honor the journey and work of Pos Moua, a wonderful Hmong poet whose work I've known for nearly 20 years. It will also be the very first time we meet in person. That's how it goes as poets, sometimes: Nearly a lifetime getting to know one another across long distance through our art. Nearly 20 other Hmong and Asian American poets will be reading this evening in a historic gathering. If you're in the Central Valley on Saturday, I encourage you to join us at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center.
The Hmong American Writers' Circle, in conjunction with Merced College and the Merced Cultural Arts Center, will present "Karst Mountains Will Bloom." The free public reading will feature nearly 20 of the leading Hmong-American voices in the U.S., as well as friends of Moua and the Hmong American Writers' Circle. Readers will include the 2016 Walt Whitman Award Winner, Mai Der Vang; the first Hmong-American to publish a full-length manuscript, Soul Vang; Nicholls Fellow and HAWC founder, Burlee Vang; among others.
Pos Moua is a Hmong-American writer, educator, and poet based out of Merced, CA. His chapbook "Towards the World Where The Torches are Burning" (Swan Scythe Press, 2001) gives “an account of love and family and identity in the poet’s new land”, and is the first published work from a Hmong American poet. He has published work in in "Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Writing", "UC Davis Poetry Review", Sacramento’s "Poetry Now", and "National Poetry".
Readers include: Dr. Kou Yang, Soul Vang, Burlee Vang, Ying Thao, See Xiong, Kao Kalia Yang (video), Mai Neng Moua (video), Andre Yang, Jer Xiong, Mai Der Vang, Yia Lee, Khaty Xiong ,(video), May Lee-Yang (video), Anthony Cody, Nou Her, May Yang (video), Yu-Han Chao, Meg Withers, Luna Moua, and Pos Moua himself.
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