Kao Kalia Yang

Kao Kalia Yang (born 1980) is a Hmong American writer and author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir from Coffee House Press and The Song Poet from Metropolitan Press.

Her work has appeared in the Paj Ntaub Voice Hmong literary journal, "Waterstone~Review," and other publications.

She is a contributing writer to On Being's Public Theology Reimagined blog.

Additionally, Yang wrote the lyric documentary, The Place Where We Were Born.

Yang currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Born in Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in December, 1980, Yang came to Minnesota in the summer of 1987, along with her parents and older sister Dawb.

Yang says that the move to America was necessary for her parents.

Her mother suffered six miscarriages after giving birth to her, and with no male heir, her father was being pressured to find a second wife.

He even took his younger daughter on trips with him to visit eligible women in the camp.

For Yang's parents, leaving Ban Vinai was not only about finding opportunity for their two daughters, but also rescuing themselves from family and cultural pressure.

Yang says that while her sister mastered the English language quickly, she struggled for many years, finally discovering that her gift lay not in the spoken, but in the written word.

Yang credits her older sister Dawb, with awakening an interest within her:

"[E]verything was a Chinese movie in her head. So she would read Jack and the Beanstalk ... [and] it became a Chinese drama. So in my head it was never Jack and the Beanstalk; it wasn't even Jack, it was a Chinese drama, flying around. That beanstalk wasn't a beanstalk, it was a mountain, and he was going to get this beautiful flower that would make his ailing mother live for a hundred years. And this is the kind of introduction I had to books."

Yang also credits her 9th grade English teacher, Mrs. Gallatin, with recognizing and encouraging her talents.

Upon graduation from Harding High School, she attended Carleton College, though she was by no means certain of her future plans when she began her college career.

Yang graduated from Carleton College in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in American Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and Cross-cultural Studies.

Yang received her Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University in New York City.

Her graduate studies were supported by a Dean's Fellowship from the School of the Arts and The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.

Beginning at age 12, Yang taught English as a second language to adult refugees.

As a student, Yang privately tutored students, and taught creative nonfiction writing workshops to professionals, including professors from Rutgers University and New York University.

Yang has also taught the fundamentals of writing to students at Concordia University in St. Paul and courses in composition at St. Catherine University.

Yang won the 2005 Lantern Book's essay contest for an essay titled "To the Men In My Family Who Love Chickens."

In 2008, Carleton College awarded her with the Spirit of Carleton College Award.

Yang has been the recipient of several Minnesota State Arts Board artist grants.

In 2009 her first book The Latehomecomer won Minnesota Book Awards for memoir/creative nonfiction as well as the Reader's Choice Award—the first book to ever win two awards in the same year.

The book was a finalist for a PEN USA Literary Center Award and an Asian American Literary Award.

The book remains a bestselling title for Coffee House Press.

"The Latehomecomer" is a National Endowment of the Arts' Big Read book.

She was a professor in the English department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for the 2010-2011 academic year.

In 2014, Yang served as a mentor for the Loft Mentor Series.

She taught at North Hennepin Community College in 2015 as visiting faculty in the English Department.

Recently, Yang was the Benedict Distinguished Visiting Faculty in American Studies and English at Carleton College.

Nonfiction

Children's Books

Kao Kalia Yang has been a recipient of the Alan Page Scholarship, the Gilman International Award, and the Freeman in Asia Scholarship.

Yang was a Columbia University's School of the Arts Dean's fellow, a Paul and Daisy Soros fellow, and a McKnight Arts fellow.

Yang's second book, The Song Poet, is the winner of the 2017 MN Book Award in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir.

It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Chautauqua Prize.

The book is now a finalist for a PEN USA literary award in nonfiction and the Dayton's Literary Peace Prize.

In 2020 Yang's children's book A Map into the World, illustrated by Seo Kim, received a Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor for outstanding writing in a picture book.