Author and Fresno State professor Mai Der Vang was honored May 9 as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, for her groundbreaking book of documentary poetry, “Yellow Rain.”
The book integrates archival research and declassified government documents to examine the biological warfare that threads through wars involving Hmong people. In lyrical poems of witness that defy historical erasure, “Yellow Rain” acknowledges those who perished and the trauma of those who survived.
Vang, an assistant professor of English, is the first Hmong American to be recognized in the 106-year history of the Pulitzer’s arts and letters prizes.
She is the fourth Fresno artist to be recognized in arts and letters, following William Saroyan, the 1940 winner in drama; Dr. Leslie R. Bassett, the 1966 winner in music; and Philip Levine, the 1995 winner in poetry. Bassett was a Fresno State alumna in music (1947), and Levine was a Fresno State professor emeritus of English (1958-92).
Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval said Vang’s poetry is born out of pain, hope, resilience and thousands of years of Hmong storytelling.
“Professor Vang’s work constitutes an archeology of memory, strife and the suffering brought by the Vietnam War,” Jiménez-Sandoval said. “Yet, amidst the dark plumes of smoke, charred earth and rivers of despair, an almond tree blossoms, the Hmong alphabet is reinvented and language becomes an eternal celebration of Hmong communities in America who hark back to their ancestral truths.”
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