Diana Khoi Nguyen and Cindy Juyoung Ok

Poet and multimedia artist Diana Khoi Nguyen was born and raised in California. She earned a BA in English and Communication Studies from UCLA, an MFA from Columbia University, and a PhD from the University of Denver. She is the author of the chaplet Unless (Belladonna*, 2019) and debut poetry collection, Ghost Of (Omnidawn Publishing, 2018).

Ghost Of was selected by Terrance Hayes for the Omnidawn Open Contest, and was a finalist for the National Book Award and L.A. Times Book Prize. It received the 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery Award and Colorado Book Award. Her poetry and prose have appeared widely in magazines and journals such as Poetry, American Poetry Review, and PEN America.

A Kundiman fellow, Nguyen’s other honors include awards from the 92Y "Discovery" / Boston Review Poetry Contest, Key West Literary Seminars, and Academy of American Poets. She has held scholarships and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. 

Currently, she teaches creative writing at Randolph College Low-Residency MFA and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. www.dianakhoinguyen.com 

Cindy Juyoung Ok is the author of Ward Toward, which was selected for the Yale Younger Poets Prize by Rae Armantrout. She is a former high school science teacher and now teaches undergraduate and graduate poetry. A MacDowell fellow and Kenyon Review Fellow, she also edits at Guernica magazine and translates poetry from Korean.