Mai Der Vang is the author of two collections of poetry. Her most recent collection,
Yellow Rain (Graywolf Press, 2021), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, PEN/Voelcker
Award for Poetry, the LA Times Book Prize in Poetry, and the California Book Awards.
Mai Der’s first book, Afterland (Graywolf Press, 2017), received the First Book Award of the Academy of American
Poets, was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry, and a finalist for the
Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
The recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship, she served as a Visiting Writer at
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry, Tin House, the American Poetry Review, among other journals and anthologies. Her essays have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, espnW, and elsewhere.
Mai Der also co-edited How Do I Begin: A Hmong American Literary Anthology with the Hmong American Writers’ Circle. A Kundiman fellow, Mai Der has completed residencies at Civitella Ranieri and Hedgebrook.
Born and raised in Fresno, California, she earned degrees from the University of California,
Berkeley and Columbia University. She teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Fresno State.
More info: www.maidervang.com
