Cathy Linh Che is a Vietnamese American poet from

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She won the

Kundiman Kundiman is a genre of traditional Filipino love songs. The lyrics of the kundiman are written in Tagalog. The melody is characterized by a smooth, flowing and gentle rhythm with dramatic intervals. Kundiman was the traditional means of sere ...

Poetry prize, the Norma Farber First Book Award from the

Poetry Society of America The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...

, and the Best Poetry Book Award from the

Association for Asian American Studies The Association for Asian American Studies was founded in 1979 as the Association for Asian/Pacific American Studies. The name was changed in 1982. The organization was established to promote teaching and research in Asian American studies. Its o ...

for her book ''Split''.

Life

Cathy Linh Che attended

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

where she received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees. In an interview done by Emerson College, Che states, "I was raised in Highland Park in a working class Asian and Latinx immigrant community. So, while there were plenty of clashes between my parents and me, it was something that everyone around me experienced so I never felt different or alone until going away to college." In 2018, she helped organize the Kundiman "Because We Come From Everything" project. She participated in the digital project the "Poetics of Haunting," curated by Jane Wong.

Writing career

When asked in an interview at

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

of what brought Cathy Linh Che to poetry, Che responded saying: "I would have to say that my parents brought me to poetry. Though neither one is a poet, my upbringing was filled with their stories. While sitting at the dinner table, my parents would tell me about their lives during the Vietnam War, the year in a refugee camp, their first years in the U.S. When I began writing, their voices demanded to be told. I couldn't help but see their stories as fundamentally part of my own." Che is currently the Executive Director at

. Che's most recognized work comes from a book called ''Split, "which contains poems on the psychological, sexual, and abusive effects of war."''

Awards

Throughout Cathy Linh Che's career, several awards have been pinned to her name, such as The Kundiman Poetry Prize, the

Norma Farber First Book Award The Norma Farber First Book Award is given by the Poetry Society of America "for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in either a hard or soft cover in a standard edition during the calendar year". Poetry Society of A ...

from the

, and The Best Poetry Book Award from the Association of Asian American Studies.

Works

*''Split'', Alice James Books, 2014. *''Hair : poems: a collection of cuts and ties'', Reed College, 2002. *''Split'', Chestertown, Maryland: Literary House Press, 2016. ; ;Anthologies *Laren McClung; Yusef Komunyakaa (eds) ''Inheriting the war : poetry and prose by descendants of Vietnam veterans and refugees'', New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. ,

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Che, Cathy Linh Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Poets from Los Angeles American women poets American people of Vietnamese descent Reed College alumni New York University alumni 21st-century American women