Mai Der Vang
Illustration — Mai Der Vang (2017) Mai Der Vang is a Hmong American poet.
Mai Der Vang

Bea Phi · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1981 · Fresno.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- poet
- Education
- University of California and Berkeley · Columbia University · Columbia University School of the Arts
- Honours
- Kundiman Fellowship · Walt Whitman Award · Guggenheim Fellowship
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Illustration — Mai Der Vang (2017) Mai Der Vang is a Hmong American poet.
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wikidata · Q40375198 · wikipedia · Mai Der Vang
In this article
Life and education
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.
Works
Works
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Mai Der Vang, poet, at the annual AWP conference in Los Angeles, California.
Bea Phi
Literature awards
Literature awards
• Year — Book — Award — Category — Result — Ref • 2016 — Afterland — Walt Whitman Award — — • 2017 — National Book Award for Poetry — — — Longlisted • 2018 — Kate Tufts Discovery Award — — • 2022 — Yellow Rain — Pulitzer Prize in Poetry — —
Honors
Honors
• Lannan Literary Fellowship, 2017.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 September 2026.
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