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Summary of Biography:    

Poet, novelist, essayist, visual artist (painter, photographer), multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer, dancer, educator, former Stegner Fellow in poetry for two years at Stanford University, Fulbright Scholar, Mong-Lan left her native Viet Nam on the last day of the evacuation of Sai Gon. Winner of a Pushcart Prize, the Juniper Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s New Writers Awards for Poetry, and other awards, Mong-Lan’s poetry has been nationally and internationally anthologized to include being in Best American Poetryand The Pushcart Book of Poetry: Best Poems from 30 Years of the Pushcart Prize. She is the author of seven books and three chapbooks which contain her poetry and artwork -- the most recent of which is Dusk Aflame: poems & art. Other books include One Thousand Minds Brimming: poems & art; Song of the Cicadas (Juniper Prize, finalist for the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award); Why is the Edge Always Windy?; Tango, Tangoing: Poems & Art; the bilingual Spanish / English edition, Tango, Tangueando: Poemas & Dibujos; and the chapbooks Love Poem to Tofu and Other Poems and Love Poem to Ginger & Other Poems: poetry & paintings. Her book Force of the Heart: Tango, Art, which includes drawings, paintings, and a poem, was inspired by the tango. Her books of poetry have been finalists for the National Poetry Series, the Tupelo Press Dorset Prize, the Paris Review Prize in Poetry, the Sawtooth Poetry Prize, the Open Book Award, among others.

Mong-Lan gives a reading /performance at the University
of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, April 2010

Mong-Lan, recipient of the University of Arizona Graduate College Fellowship and the Dean's Master of Fine Arts Fellowship, took her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona, Tucson. A former university professor, she has taught at the University of Maryland in Tokyo, Stanford University and the University of Arizona. Her poetry has been frequently anthologized nationally and internationally to include in Asian American Poetry —The Next Generation; Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond (Norton); Force Majeure (Indonesia); Black Dog, Black Night: Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry; Jungle Crows: a Tokyo Expatriate anthology and has appeared in leading American literary journals. She has read her poetry, lectured and/or given academic presentations in the U.S., Switzerland, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam, and Argentina. In addition to writing poetry, she has finished a novel with an excerpt currently in the North American Review and elsewhere.

Mong-Lan plays the piano and guitar, sings in six languages, and also composes. Her ten albums of jazz piano and tangos also showcase her poetry. Mong-Lan's jazz piano album releases can be found here: Diary: Voyages; Visions: Diary; and City of Dreams - Ciudad de Sueños; Equivalences / Synchronicities; Under 13 Moons; The Cosmic Blues ~ Dragonfly Dances. Dreaming Orchid: Poetry & Jazz Piano couples spoken word poetry with Mong-Lan's enchanting jazz piano. Her tango album, Perfumas de Amor, de Viet Nam y Argentina (Tangos por Siempre), features her singing, with guitar with the virtuoso Enrique Santillan. New Orleans of My Heart is her 2019 jazz piano release, which contemplates this beloved city through original jazz improvisations on the piano.

Mong-Lan's paintings and photographs have been exhibited for one year at the Capitol House in Washington D.C., for six months at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, in galleries in the San Francisco Bay Area, in public exhibitions in Tokyo, Bali, Bangkok, Buenos Aires and Seoul. In conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts, she was the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts' inaugural Poet and Visual Artist in Residence.

Giving a poetry reading at the opening
of her art exhibition and dance performance. (Photo: Nguyen Thi Le Lieu)

Mong-Lan lived six years of her adult life in Tokyo, Japan, teaching with the Univ. of Maryland; returned to Viet Nam on a Fulbright Grant; lived in Bangkok, Thailand; and has lived many years in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has lectured, given readings and workshops in Asia, Europe, the U.S., and South America. Fluent in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, French, Italian, she also speaks some Japanese and Thai. She is a member of the Associated Writing Programs (AWP) and PEN America. Available to perform, give workshops, lectures and readings, she divides her time between North America and South America, while traveling to Asia and Europe.

Mong-Lan as a dancer has studied ballet, jazz, flamenco, modern, and for twenty-five years has specialized as a Argentine Tango dancer, performer, choreographer, teacher, having performed and taught in Buenos Aires, San Francisco, New York City, Tokyo, Bangkok, and elsewhere.

Mong-Lan's solo show, Ocean of Senses: Dream Songs & Tangos: one woman's journey from Sai Gon to Buenos Aires via America, blends original poetry, jazz piano, guitar, dance, story and song. Watch the trailer here.

BOOK Mong-Lan for presentations, readings, lectures & workshops

Extended Biography 

Multi-artist Mong-Lan, poet, writer, painter, photographer, musician, composer, singer, dancer, teacher and choreographer of Argentine tango, left her native Viet Nam on the last day of the evacuation of Sai Gon. After one month in Guam and gypsy-like periods ranging from weeks to years in numerous cities and states in the American Midwest and Southwest, she and her family settled in Houston, Texas. While still in high school, she received scholarships for three years to attend the Glassell School of Art in Houston. Subsequently, her paintings and photographs have been exhibited for one year at the Capitol House in Washington D.C., for six months at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, in galleries in the San Francisco Bay Area, in public exhibitions in Bali, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Seoul and Tokyo.

Mong-Lan took her Master of Fine Arts in poetry from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she received the Graduate School Fellowship and the Dean's Master of Fine Arts Fellowship. For one month, she was a guest writer in The Chateau de Lavigny International Writer's Residency in Switzerland, near Lausanne.  The recipient of a Stegner Fellowship in poetry for two years at Stanford University, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Vietnam shortly afterwards. She has taught English as a second language in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. A former university professor, she has taught at the University of Maryland in Tokyo, Stanford University and the University of Arizona. She has served as poetry and art editor for Sonora Review and Constellation, UMUC's literary magazine.  

Mong-Lan is the author of seven books and three chapbooks which contain her poetry and artwork. Her most collections include the full-length book Dusk Aflame: poems & art,2018, and the chapbook, Tone of Water in a Half-Filled Glass. Her first book of poems, Song of the Cicadas, won the 2000 Juniper Prize and was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2001.  It also won the 2002 Great Lakes Colleges Association's New Writers Awards for Poetry and was a finalist for the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award. Other books include One Thousand Minds Brimming: poems & art; Why is the Edge Always Windy?, Tango, Tangoing: Poems & Art; the bilingual Spanish / English edition, Tango, Tangueando: Poemas & Dibujos; and Love Poem to Tofu and Other Poems (poetry & calligraphic art) and Love Poem to Ginger & Other Poems: poetry & paintings (chapbook).  Her book Force of the Heart: Tango, Art, which includes drawings, paintings, and a poem, was inspired by the tango. Her books of poetry have been finalists for the National Poetry Series, the Tupelo Press Dorset Prize, the Paris Review Prize in Poetry, the Sawtooth Poetry Prize, the Open Book Award, etc.

Mong-Lan's poems have been anthologized in Best American Poetry; The Pushcart Prize Anthology; The Pushcart Book of Poetry: Best Poems from 30 Years of the Pushcart Prize; Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond (Norton); Making More Waves: New Writing by Asian American Women (Beacon Press); Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry and Prose (Asian American Writer's Workshop); and Asian American Poetry —The Next Generation (U of Illinois Press); Force Majeure (Indonesia); Black Dog, Black Night: Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry (Milkweed Editions) ; Jungle Crows: a Tokyo Expatriate anthology; and her poems have appeared in leading American literary journals such as The Kenyon Review, North American Review, New American Writing, and The Antioch Review. Her poems have been translated into Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malayam, Serbian, Spanish, Tamil, and Vietnamese. 

In conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts, she was the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts' inaugural Visual Artist and Poet in Residence during the month of February 2005.  An exhibition of her paintings and photographs, "The World of Mong-Lan," ran from January 30-August 28, 2005.  She gave poetry readings, gallery talks and conducted workshops on art (drawing and painting) and writing / poetry at the Dallas Museum of Arts for the general public, at the Dallas Public Library, and creatively talented middle school and high school students in Dallas area arts magnet schools.

Mong-Lan has read/performed her poetry and presented her artworks at many universities and festivals/workshops in a number of countries to include the World Poetry Festival in Heidelberg, Germany; the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, Indonesia (where she won First Place in their Grand Poetry Slam); the Utan Kayu Literary Biennale in Jakarta and Borobudur, Indonesia; Lavigny, Switzerland (Chateau de Lavigny International Writers Residency); in Tokyo at Waseda University, University of Tokyo and Temple University; at U.S. Embassy-sponsored presentations in Japan (in Fukuoka at Kyushu University, in Nagoya at Aichi Prefectural University, and Sophia University in Tokyo)  and in Argentina, Buenos Aires, at the Instituto Cultural Argentino-Norteamericano  (ICANA); in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; at U.S. Consulate-(Ho Chi Minh City) sponsored lectures in Vietnam at various Vietnamese universities in HCMC and in the Mekong Delta; and in the U.S. to include:  Harvard University, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, Menlo College, Occidental College, University of Nevada, Northwest Bookfest, Virgina Festival of the Book, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Regis College, State University of New York--Purchase, at the twelve Great Lakes College's Association Colleges such as Kenyon College, DePauw University, Wabash College, and Hope College; the Asia Society in New York City, and the Poetry Society of America's Festival for New Poets, to name a few.  Her artistic schedule provides information about her professional activities. 

Dance

In addition to her writing, painting, and photography, she is a dancer, choreographer and teacher of Argentine tango for nearly twenty five years.  She has also studied ballet, ballroom, flamenco, jazz, and classical Spanish dance.  On the tango, she writes, "My love for the Argentine tango began in 1995 when I saw "Forever Tango" on the stage in San Francisco. I have been hooked ever since I laid eyes on the pairs of dancers, whirling in giros, dancing the passionate tango. In the years afterwards, I have learned from many different teachers in order to perfect my tango, and consequently have taught and performed tango in Argentina, the United States, Italy, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam."

"While I had been living in Buenos Aires for many years, after having visited Argentina once a year from several weeks to a month since 2001, now I divide my time between the U.S. and Argentina. In the pursuit of forming my own philosophy of tango, I have studied with many and varied Argentine tango masters and choreographers such as Carlos & Maria Rivarola, Juan Carlos Copes, Carlos Gavito, Claudio Gonzalez, Francisco Forquera & Carolina Bonaventura, Verónica Salmerón, Gabriel Misse, Carlos Copello, Martin Ojeda, Guillermina Quiroga, Claudio Villagra, Mariano "Chicho" Frumboli, Gustavo Naveira & Giselle Anne, Marcelo & Analia."

"My dance training has its roots in classical ballet, jazz, modern and contemporary dance, flamenco and Spanish dance, ballroom social dance and salsa. I have studied ballet with ex-principal dancer of the famed Teatro Colón Alejandro Totto; and at the Estudio Julio Bocca, with Ricardo Rivas, Silvia Bazilis, Daniel Negroni. I have studied Flamenco with Alicia Fiuri, Néstor Spada in Buenos Aires, and with Rosa Montoya in San Francisco." Visit her tango website.

Music

As a child Mong-Lan studied the violin for several years, and for many years studied classical piano with various private teachers, to include Dr. Daniel Kramlich of Houston Baptist University. Later in Buenos Aires, she studied opera singing with Carmen Sensaud (creator and director of La Scuola Internazionale di Canto "María Callas" of Rome) and Jasmine Lin; and at the same time, studied tango singing with Ariel Varnerin and Marcelo Macri. The classical and tango guitar, she has studied with several private teachers in Buenos Aires to include Enrique Santillán.

Mong-Lan's ten albums of jazz piano and tangos also showcase her poetry.
Her jazz piano album releases can be found here: Diary: Voyages; Visions: Diary; and City of Dreams - Ciudad de Sueños; Equivalences / Synchronicities; Under 13 Moons; The Cosmic Blues ~ Dragonfly Dances. Dreaming Orchid: Poetry & Jazz Piano couples spoken word poetry with Mong-Lan's enchanting jazz piano. Her tango album, Perfumas de Amor, de Viet Nam y Argentina (Tangos por Siempre) 2018, features her singing, with guitar, with the virtuoso Enrique Santillan. New Orleans of My Heart is her 2019 jazz piano release, which contemplates this beloved city through original jazz improvisations on the piano.

Mong-Lan lived six years of her adult life in Tokyo, Japan, teaching with the Univ. of Maryland; returned to Vietnam on a Fulbright Grant; lived in Bangkok, Thailand; and has lived many years in Argentina. Now she divides her time between North America and South America, and travels to Asia and Europe. She has lectured, given readings and workshops in Asia, Europe, the U.S., and South America. On the faculty of the Jung Center of Houston and The Writer's Garret, she is fluent in Spanish, Vietnamese, French, Italian, and English, and speaks some Japanese and Thai. Available to teach, perform, present workshops, give lectures and readings, she is a member of PEN America, the Academy of American Poets, and the Associated Writing Programs. Contact.

Mong-Lan's new solo show, Ocean of Senses: Dream Songs & Tangos: one woman's journey from Sai Gon to Buenos Aires via America, blends original poetry, jazz piano, guitar, dance, story and song. Watch the trailer here

Mong-Lan reads her poetry & presents her artwork
at the University of Maryland,
in Tokyo, Japan, 2006

"She is tireless, disciplined, multitalented and achieving
beyond one normal person's portion. She maintains
her output and activities even with the distractions
of frequent foreign travel and overseas residence.
She lists nine languages in which she is fluent
or on the way to becoming so.
She is also a dancer.”—The Japan Times.

(left) Mong-Lan teaches writing & art to students in front of her mural-size paintings at the Dallas Museum of Art, 2005. As part of the Inaugural Poet & Visual Artist in Residence, her paintings and photographs were on exhibit for 6 months at the Museum.

Selected Readings /Performances

• "The Dancer from the Dance"--I organized, moderated and participated in this AWP conference (Associated Writing Program). "How can we, and do we want to, separate the writer from the writing? This panel investigates how or whether we can separate the work, which we may like and even admire, from the author, who may have been racist, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-semitic, for instance, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Paul Claudel. . . . and more recent examples . . ." March 5, 2020, San Antonio, TX.
• Performance of tangos and songs, voice and guitar, Salon Canning, Milonga Parakultural, Buenos Aires, Argentina. February 2020.
• Reading and performance, Poetry FIX, co-sponsored by Poets & Writers, Fix Coffeebar, Houston, TX. Nov 2019.
• Mong-Lan presents her tango album, Perfumas de Amor, her tango books and artwork. Performance of tangos, voice & guitar, Passion Milonga, Esquina Tango, Austin, TX, Nov 2019.
• Multi-cultural multi-media event that combines the literary arts with live music and the visual arts. I gave readings from my books, to include Dusk Aflame: poems & art. Presented songs with voice and guitar, and recited my poems to a live performance of my jazz piano. Co-sponsored by Poets & Writers, Brasil Cafe, Houston, TX, Sept 2019
• Presentation of tango album, Perfumas de Amor, art and book exhibition, perfornace, voice and guitar, at various venues in New York City, such as Tango Cafe (You Should Dancing), DanceSport, Volvo Tango, Ensueño Tango Salon, May 2019.
• Reading of Dusk Aflame: poems & art, Path of Tea, Houston, TX, May 2019.
• Mong-Lan presents her new tango album, Perfumas de Amor, her tango books and artwork. Performance of tangos, voice & guitar, Passion Milonga, Esquina Tango, Austin, TX, Nov 2018.
• Mong-Lan performs-reads with other writers of the collective, She Who Has No Master(s) - Litquake - DVAN: Thi Bui, Aimee Phan, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Lan Duong, Dao Strom, at the San Francisco Public Library, CA. Co-sponsored by Poets & Writers. Oct 2018.
• Intensive Poetry Writing Workshop, Two Days , POETRY: Power of Voice, Power of Place 2018-410, Inprint, Houston, TX, Oct 6-7, 2018
• Multi-media Reading Performance, from Dusk Aflame: poems & art, Malvern Books, Austin, TX, 2018
• An Evening of  Poetry, Music & Art with Mong-Lan, presenting Dusk Aflame: poems & art, Kaboom Books, co-sponsored by Poets & Writers, Houston, TX, Sept 2018.
• Multi-city Poetic Tour, Upstate New York, Corning, Bath, Watkins Glen, Wheeler Hill, Rochester, Slingerlands, Albany, co-sponsored by Poets & Writers. Short essay on Poets & Writers' website, read it here, 2018.
• Presenting my album, Perfumas de Amor, Tango por Siempre, voice & guitar, Tango by the Bay Milonga, Miami, Florida, April 2018.
• Reading - Performance, Talk, presenting Dusk Aflame: poems & art, University of South Florida, Tampa, 2018.
• Performance of original poetry with jazz piano, Salon Canning, Milonga Parakultural, Buenos Aires, Argentina. January 2018.
• Performance, Panelist, Art show, La Guagua Poetry Festival, "Voices & Visions," Lowell, MA, 2017.
• "River of Senses: Dream Songs & Tangos" -- one-woman show presented at Don't Tell Mama, famed and iconic cabaret in Manhattan's theatre district, Jan, 2017.
• Poetry reading / Jazz Piano performance, Kaboom Books, Houston, TX  2016.
• Presenter-Panelist, “The Asian Face of War - Gaining Perspectives from Both Sides: A Look at WWII, Vietnam, and Korea,” Associated Writing Programs Conference, Los Angeles, CA 2016.
• Poetry reading / performance, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, Venice, CA, 2015.
• Poetry performance, The Beat Museum, "A Celebration of Households, San Francisco, CA, 2015.
• An Evening of Poetry, Music & Tango Dance Performance, University of California at Davis, Oct 2015.
• Poetry reading – Jazz Piano performance, “Illuminations,” The Crow Cabaret. San Francisco, CA 2015.
• Poetry reading, A New Cadence Poetry Series, Santa Cruz, CA, Oct 2015.
• Presenter, Poetry Symposium, "Avant Gardening & Birds on the Fly: Poetry & Testimony," Louisiana State Univ, Baton Rouge, LA, Oct 2015.
• Houston Public Library, Clayton Branch, Multimedia Poetry Reading, Reading from One Thousand Minds Brimming: Poems & Art, Spring, Houston, TX  2015.
• Art & book presentation, Houston Indie Bookfest, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX  2015.
• Presenter-Panelist, “Mapping New Territories: Diasporic Writers from Regions of Conflict.” Associated Writing Programs Conference, (AWP), Minnesota, MN, 2015.
• Public Poetry, Multi-media Poetry reading, Houston Public Library, TX, 2015.
• Brazos Bookstore, Multi-media Poetry Reading, Slide show of artwork, Houston, TX, 2015.
• Multi-disciplinary workshops in writing, dance, visual arts at the Jung Center of Houston, TX, 2014-2015.
• Argentine Tango dance performances and workshops in Houston, TX, 2014-2015.
• Univ. of New Orleans, Poetry reading, New Orleans, LA, 2014.
• Tulane Univ, Univ of New Orleans and NOCCA; Guest-taught poetry writing workshops, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2014.
• Malvern Books, Poetry Reading & Argentine Tango dance performance, Austin, TX, 2014.
• Multiespaco Korova, Poetry reading, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2014.
• Art exhibitions, Tango workshops & dance performances in various venues in San Francisco, CA, 2014.
• Central Connecticut State University, Poetry reading & dance performance, New Britain, Connecticut, 2013.
• Performances and art exhibitions at various venues in New York City, NY, 2013.
• Eastwind Books of Berkeley, Poetry Reading, Berkeley, CA, April, 2013.
• Art Exhibition, Dance Performance, Metronome, San Francisco, CA, April 2013.
• Poetry Reading, Dance Performance, The Writer's Garret, Dallas, TX, May 2013.
• Esquina Homero Manzi, Tango Dance Performances, Buenos Aires, Nov. 2012 - Mar 2013.
• Stanford University, Poetry Reading, Stanford, CA, April 2012.
• Dance Performance, Art Exhibition, DanceSport, New York City, NY, Fall 2012.
• Dance Performance, Art Exhibition, Metronome, San Francisco, CA, April 2012.
• Fundación Ernesto Sabato, "A Night of Poetry & Music," Poetry Reading, Buenos Aires, 2012.
• Asian American Writer's Workshop, Multi-media presentation, Poetry Reading / Dance Performance,New York City, NY, 2011.
• The Writer's Garret, Dallas, Texas, 2011.
• St. Paul's School, Multi-media presentation, Poetry Reading / Dance Performance, Concord, New Hampshire, 2011.

• Mong-Lan teaches a tango class to dance students
  and a painting class to art majors during the same hour,
  in the same space, cross-breeding. St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, 2011.

• Above, Mong-Lan's dance students look on as she teaches the painting class, St. Paul's School, 2011.

• University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, 2010.
• Canning, El Parakultural, Buenos Aires, 2010.
• Sociedad Argentina de Escritores (S.A.D.E), Argentine Society of Writers, Buenos Aires, Poetry Reading, 2009.
• Buenos Aires International Book Fair, American Embassy Stand, May 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
• Argentine Embassy Residence, Poetry Reading from Tango, Tangoing, Multi-media art presentation, Tango Dance performance, Bangkok, Thailand, November 2008.
• Thammasat University, Lecture on Translation, Bangkok, Thailand, November 2008.
• University of California at Riverside, Poetry Reading from Tango, Tangoing, Multi-media art presentation, November 2008.
• International Poetry Festival: Vietnamese Poets of the Diaspora, Poetry Reading and multi-media art presentation, San Francisco, CA, October 2008.
• Asian American Writer's Workshop, Poetry Reading from Tango, Tangoing, Multi-media art presentation, Tango Dance performance, New York City, October, 2008.
• PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, May 2008, New York City.
• Buenos Aires International Book Fair, American Embassy Stand, May 2008, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
• Associated Writing Programs Conference, New York City, January 2008.
• Utan Kayu Literary Biennale, Jakarta and Borobudur, Java, Indonesia, 2007.
• Reading and Painting Exhibition, Tamarind Café, Bangkok, Thailand, 2007.
• Lectures on Asian-American literature in Vietnam, at various Ho Chi Minh City Universities and those in the Mekong Delta, sponsored by the U.S. Consulate in HCMC, 2007.
• Univ of Maryland, Seoul, South Korea, Reading and Art slide show presentation, 2007.
• Sophia University, co-sponsored with the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Reading and lecture, Tokyo, Japan, 2007.

"

In New York City,
the Asian American Writer's Workshop, 2008

• John Hopkins University, Center for Talented Youth, Reading and Art slide show presentation, 2007.
• Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Bali. Poetry Reading and Slide Show Presentation of Artwork.  Exhibition of Photographs.  Sept.-Oct. 2006.
• University of Tokyo, Linguapax Conference, Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 2006.
• Regis College, Boston. “Poetry & Art,” reading and slideshow presentation of artwork, Sept. 2006.
• Harvard University, Adams House, Grolier Poetry Reading, Sept. 2006
• University of Maryland University College, Tokyo, Japan.  50th Anniversary Celebration, poetry reading and slideshow presentation of artwork.  Sept. 2006.
• Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.  Talk and Poetry Reading.  July 2006.
• Temple University, Tokyo, Japan.  Poetry & Art with Mong-Lan:  Poetry Reading and MultiMedia Artwork Presentation.  July 2006.
• Kyushu University, Fukuoka City, Japan.  Lecture / Discussion and Poetry Reading, "Introduction of Contemporary American Poetry." Sponsored by U.S. Embassy, Tokyo.  June, 2006.
• Aichi Prefectural University, Nagoya, Japan. Lecture and Poetry Reading, "Asian American Literature, " Sponsored by Nagoya American Center, Aichi Prefectural University and the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo.  June, 2006.
• Buenos Aires, Argentina, Poetry Reading and Art Slide Show Presentation of Paintings and Photographs, Instituto Cultural Argentino Norteamericano, April, 2006.  Sponsored by U.S. Embassy.
• Paterson Museum (in conjunction with exhibition of painting and photograph), Paterson, New Jersey, April 2006.
• Asian American Writer’s Workshop, reading and multi-media art presentation, New York City, March 2006.
• Purchase College, State University of New York, reading and multi-media art presentation, March 2006.
• Adelphi, Maryland, University of Maryland University College, “Diversity,” poetry reading and multi-media art presentation, March 2006.

• Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, VA, March 2006.
• The Pink Cow, “Poetry & Art with Mong-Lan,” Tokyo, Japan, March 2006.
• “Maryland Presents,” University of Maryland University College, “Poetry & Art with Mong-Lan,” Tokyo, Yokota, Japan, February 2006.
• University of Nevada, Reno, February 2006.
• Menlo College, Atherton, CA. Multi-media Art Presentation / Poetry reading, January, 2006.
• San Francisco State University, Poetry Center, poetry reading & multi-media artwork presentation, January 2006.
• San Diego State University Writer’s Conference, January 2006.
• Poets-Zone World Poetry Festival, Heidelberg, Germany, Nov. 2005.
• University of Texas at Dallas Art Residency Program Reading, Feb 2005.
• Inaugural Poet and Artist-in-Resident at the Dallas Museum of Art, February, 2005
• 
• Poetry Society of America’s Festival for New Poets, New York City, April, 2003.

• The following readings were part of the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s New Writers Award Tour:  I read my poetry and also gave a photography presentation using slides.
  • Albion College, Michigan, April 2003.
  • Antioch College, Ohio, April 2003.
  • Denison University, Ohio, April 2003.
  • DePauw University, Indiana, April 2003.
  • Earlham College, Indiana, April 2003.
  • Hope College, Michigan, April 2003.
  • Kalamazoo College, Michigan, April 2003.
  • Kenyon College, Ohio, April 2003.
  • Ohio Wesleyan University, Ohio, April 2003.
  • Wabash College, Indiana, April 2003.
  • College of Wooster, Ohio, April 2003.

• Harvard University, Grolier Reading, Cambridge, MA, November 2002.
• Maryland Presents, University of Maryland University College, Yokota, Tokyo, Japan, November 2002.
• San Francisco Public Library, "Grotto Night," (Poetry reading and multi-media artwork presentation) March 2002.
• San Francisco State University, "Tet in San Francisco," March 2002.
• San Carlos Public Library, "The Poetic Voice," Talk and Reading, CA., February 2002.
• Stanford University, Stanford Bookstore, January 2002.
• Occidental College, “Diversity Week,” Multi-media artwork presentation, Lecture and Reading, Los Angeles, November 2001. 
• Northwest Bookfest, Seattle, Washington, October 2001.
• The Chateau de Lavigny International Writer’s Residency, Lavigny, Switzerland, August 2000.
• Asia Society, New York, NY, Watermark:  Vietnamese American Poetry and Prose, 1998.

Significant Honors:

• Grand Poetry Slam First Place Winner, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Bali, Indonesia. Oct. 2006.
• Inclusion in Pushcart Book of Poetry: Best Poems from 30 Years of the Pushcart Prize, Fall, 2006.
• Invited to read at the Poets Zone World Poetry Festival, Heidelberg, Germany, November, 2005.
• Inaugural Poet & Visual Artist in Resident at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts,  in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts, February 2005.
• Fulbright Grant to Vietnam for 2003.
• Invited to read at the Poetry Society of America’s Festival for New Poets, New York City, April 2003.
• Great Lakes College Association's New Writers Award for Poetry, 2002.
• Inclusion of “Trail” in Best American Poetry of 2002, edited by Robert Creeley.
• Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award, Finalist, 2001.
• Wallace E Stegner Fellowship, Stanford University, AY 2000-2002. 
• Juniper Prize, University of Massachusetts Press, 2000.
• Le Chateau de Lavigny  International Writer’s Residency, Lavigny, Switzerland, Summer 2000.
• Pushcart Prize XXIV, “Sand, Flies & Fish,” 1999-2000
• Dean's Master of Fine Arts Fellowship, Graduate College, 1999-2000.