Kao Kalia Yang, visiting faculty, is a Hmong-American writer. She is the author of the memoirs The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, The Song Poet, Somewhere in the Unknown World, and Where The Rivers Part. Yang is also the author of the children’s books A Map into the World, The Shared Room, The Most Beautiful Thing, and Yang Warriors, among others. She co-edited the ground-breaking collection What God is Honored Here?: Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss by and for Native Women and Women of Color. Yang’s work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, the PEN USA Literary Awards, the Dayton’s Literary Peace Prize, as Notable Books by the American Library Association, Kirkus Best Books of the Year, the Heartland Bookseller’s Award, and garnered four Minnesota Book Awards. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carleton College. Yang is McKnight, Soros, and Guggenheim fellow. She lives in Minnesota with her family, and teaches and speaks across the nation.

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