Mai Der Vang

Mai Der Vang is a Hmong American poet.

Life and education Vang was born in Fresno, California. Vang's parents resettled in the United States in 1981 as Hmong refugees fleeing Laos.

She graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in English, and from Columbia University with an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry. She is a Kundiman Fellow.

Her book, Afterland, won the 2016 Walt Whitman Award selected by Carolyn Forche. Afterland was longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry in 2017, as well as a finalist for the 2018 Kate Tufts Discovery Award.

Vang's book Yellow Rain was finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

Her third collection, Primordial, was released in 2025 from Graywolf Press.

Awards and honors

Literature awards Year Book Award Category Result Ref 2016 Afterland Walt Whitman Award — 2018 Kate Tufts Discovery Award — 2022 Yellow Rain Pulitzer Prize in Poetry —

Honors

Lannan Literary Fellowship, 2017.

Works