Andre Yang lives in Fresno, California. He is a founding member of the Hmong American Writers' Circle (HAWC), where he actively conducts and participates in public writing workshops.   He received his MFA degree from CSU Fresno where he was a Provost Scholar and a Philip Levine Scholar.  There, he divides his time between teaching freshman composition, poetry, and working on the editorial staff of The Normal School literary magazine. Andre is a Kundiman Asian American Poetry Fellow and has attended to the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop and the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. His poetry has appeared in Paj Ntaub Voice, Hyphen Magazine, and the chapbook anthology 'Here is a Pen' (Achiote Press).

Anthony Cody was born in Fresno, California to children of borne from immigrants of the Dust Bowl and Bracero Program. A graduate of CSU-Fresno, Anthony has been writing poetry since he read his first poem in Spanish. Anthony writes to capture the complexities of each moment and hopes that through writing, he, as well as others, can further understand humanity and have an opportunity to reflect upon the personal struggles within life. His work has been previously published in 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross The Border: Undocuments 1971-2007.

Burlee Vang is the author of the chapbook Incantation for Rebirth (Swan Scythe Press, 2010). His prose and poetry have appeared in Ploughshares, North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Massachusetts Review, Runes: A Review of Poetry, among other publications. His work has also been anthologized in Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers: Best New Voices of 2006 (Random House) and Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Great Central Valley (Heyday Books). In 2006, he was the recipient of the Paj Ntaub Voice Prize in Poetry. He holds an MFA in fiction from California State University – Fresno, and is the founder of HAWC. He lives in Fresno with his wife, Mary, and their two children, Belle and Jude.

Mai Der Vang was raised in Fresno, CA. Her poems have been published in Paj Ntaub Voice, the Lantern Review, and the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education & Advancement. Mai Der served on the editorial board with the Hmong American Writers’ Circle to produce How Do I Begin: A Hmong American Literary Anthology, where many of her own poems are featured. Other poems are forthcoming in a literary anthology featuring Southeast Asian women writers. Aside from poetry, Mai Der's op-ed articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, and the Fresno Bee among others. In 2009, she completed a residency at Hedgebrook, a program for women writers. Mai Der obtained her Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Mai Der is currently pursuing her MFA degree at Columbia University.

Pos L. Moua is a Hmong-American writer. He has written several short poems about his childhood experience during the Vietnam War and about living in and around the Central Valley region and its bioregional connection between himself and the Hmong and the many people who share the Valley land and community with him. His chapbook published by Swan Scythe Press, 2001, entitled, Towards the World Where the Torches Are Burning, gives “an account of love and family and identity in the poet's new land.” Additionally, he has also had literary works represented in Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Writing, UC Davis Poetry Review, Sacramento's Poetry Now, and National Poetry.

Soul Choj Vang’s poetry is anthologized in Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Writing, How Much Earth: An Anthology of Fresno Poets, Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans, and appears in the publications In the Grove, The Packinghouse Review, Central California Poetry Journal, and Paj Ntaub Voice. He was born in Laos, came to the U.S. as a refugee child, and has served in the U.S. Army. He was graduated with an MFA in Poetry from California State University, Fresno.

Yashi Lee was born and raised in Fresno, California.  She is currently a graduate student at California State University - Fresno pursuing a MA in English and plans to continue on to a PhD. She hopes to one day be a distinguished fantasy fiction writer as well as a Hmong American writer. 

Ying Thao has a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from the University of California, Riverside and a Certificate in Asian American Studies from California State University, Long Beach.  He first started stumbling upon writing after being a part of the HAWC workshop for about 4 years and has decided that his strength lies in Creative Non-Fiction.  As a Gay Hmong American, he feels that his strength lies in telling the issues of both a Gay male and a Hmong male, even though both subjects are at the opposite end of the spectrums in terms of political and social matters.  But hopefully through creative Non-Fiction he can unite the two subjects.