Bamboo Among The Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans

Contributors

Contributors BC is the pseudonym of a writer and visual artist who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. He recieved his B.F.A. from a state university in Kansas, and he describes his writing as simple yet confusing. Bee Cha attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and earned his master of architecture degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he works for Flad & Associates as an architectural designer. Bee was one of the cofounders of Paj Ntaub Voice. He has been involved with Hmong Artist Trek, a group that encourages Hmong artists to utilize their skills by participating in community projects. He also volunteered to expose youths living in public housing to the fundamental workings of architecture , assisted in planning for the addition to the St. Paul Hmong Alliance Church, and designed artworks for Hmong American Partnership. In his leisure time, Bee listens to Green Day, watches NBA games, plays chess, and enjoys finger-picking his guitar. Dia Cha is a professor of anthropology and ethnic studies at St. Cloud State University. She holds a B.A. in anthropology from Metropolitan State College of Denver, an M.A. in applied anthropology from Northern Arizona University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado–Boulder. In addition to scholarly articles and reports, Dia has written Dia’s Story Cloth, and she is a coauthor, with Dr. Norma Livo, of Folk Stories of the Hmong and Teaching with Folk Stories of the Hmong: An Activity Book. 196 True Hang is the pseudonym of a single Hmong woman writer who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. She graduated from a private four-year college and currently works for a nonprofit organization . Her writings have been published in various local venues. She frequents used bookstores and enjoys sitting in cafés reading and writing for hours on Sundays. If you see her, please don’t interrupt her work. Sharon Her is a writer and consultant. Her awards include participation in the 2000 Loft Asian American Inroads Program, an Asian American Renaissance Emerging Artist Regrant, and a Jerome Travel and Study Grant. Current projects include coauthoring a children’s book with David Haynes and developing a Hmong student-needs video with Minnesota Public Schools. In the summer of 2002 she taught youth fiction classes for both SASE: The Write Place! and the Loft. She lives in Minneapolis. May Lee studies English at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities and does not intend to become a teacher at any point in her life. She is a playwright, novelist, and short-story writer who aspires to get paid for her work. Her genres of interest include memoir, fiction, romance, and mystery thrillers, as well as explorations of slices of Hmong life. If she could meet one author, it would be Dean Koontz because he actually wrote back to her, in longhand. Kou Lor lives and works in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He has a B.A. in psychology and a B.S. in computer science, both from the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh. He started writing at the age of fourteen and, while he has been improving his skills since those first days of “Roses are red,” he is still searching for his voice as a poet and a Hmong American. 197 Pacyinz Lyfoung is a community activist and women’s issues advocate who hopes to use the power of words to effect social change, to remember what came before us, and to shape what will come after us. Her work has been published in Paj Ntaub Voice and the Asian American Journal, and she is currently a volunteer coordinator on the River Dragon Tales project, a collection of life experiences and collective wisdom from Asian Pacific Islander women and girls living in Minnesota. Mai Neng Moua is a cofounder and the current editor of Paj Ntaub Voice. A poet and creative nonfiction writer, she has been published in Healing by Heart, Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and We Are the Freedom People. Mai Neng has a B.A. from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and is completing her M.A. at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She is the public policy coordinator for the nonprofit organization Institute for New Americans, located in Minneapolis. She loves traveling , international films, and lakes, oceans, and mountains, and she enjoys...