I'm grateful that you're here.

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In case you need an introduction, here's a little something I wrote that might summarize who I am and what I do: 

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Writing is my coping device in grappling with an identity that feels like laundry list of exceptions: Asian American but not Chinese, Japanese, Korean or South Asian; technically of Vietnamese heritage but not ethnically; Spanish-speaking but not Hispanic; model minority with an Asian mother who never cared about report cards; lovechild of a Vietnam war bride but with a non-veteran father, etc. I'm a memoirist in the throes of articulating my mother's story -- the greatest enigma in my life. I write because I looked for mirrors in books, and instead found endless windows -- frames framing frames for looking out or in.

 

The brilliant Toni Morrison said, “if there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." Here I am attempting to do just that.

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Truthfully, I could fanatically quote Ms. Morrison, my fellow Aquarian, all day, every day, but her words here resonate specially and specifically: 

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"If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else."

 

This is the ethos behind my work as a writer, instructor, and community arts organizer. Check out my writing & creativity workshops below. As a Montagnard American writer and scholar, I'm thrilled for the upcoming workshop, Apocalypse Never: Writing Our Origin Stories and Imaginative Futures, created for the Montagnard American diaspora -- the first of its kind! 

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If you're interested in getting involved, you can always drop me a message in the contact form below. 

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Gratitude,

 

H'Rina 

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