Mattie Do makes news for Lao cinema

It's a good year for Lao horror with the release of Mattie Do's second feature film, Dearest Sister, which is getting some serious notice.

Wired Magazine, has a new profile, “Mattie Do, Laos’ Sole Female Director, Scares Up Attention With Dearest Sister,” by Nathan Mattise. Fortune Magazine’s column “The World’s Most Powerful Women” cited her for their November 2016 issue. NBC News also just featured her in the article "As Laos’ First Female Filmmaker, Mattie Do Shows What’s ‘Behind the Doors."

This is a very exciting development for Lao cinema and will hopefully encourage many more to join her in her vision and celebrate her success which has been so hard-earned.

Lao American poet presenting at LOSCON 2016

Coming up this weekend:

As the new President of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, Bryan Thao Worra will be discussing Speculative Poetry at 5pm this Saturday at LOSCON in Los Angeles, and will be there throughout the day to meet with poets and readers along all points of the speculative literature continuum!  

He'll be speaking along with noted SFF scholars and writers Jaymee Goh and Nikia Chaney! 

Per the panel description: Speculative poetry is a rising professional field in our infinitely diverse genre! The Science Fiction Poetry Association elected Bryan Thao Worra as its new president; new markets have arisen offering professional rates for cutting-edge poetic forms; new stars are coming out of the poetry field exploring the speculative in what is a very experimental form. Find out more about where you can read such works and where the field might head into next!

Knight Arts Challenge recognizes art of Laotian artists

Saymoukda Vongsay, May Lee-Yang and Naomi Ko were recently awarded a Knight Arts Challenge grant of $45,000 for their “Empowering Asian Women Through Comedy” project under the group name of Funny Asian Women…K (FAWK)

The Knight Arts Challenge funds the best ideas for engaging and enriching communities through the arts. In 2016, They were giving away a total of $8 million to grassroots ideas in four cities: Akron, Ohio, Detroit, South Florida and St. Paul, Minnesota.

Interview with Lao Animator behind Cool Town Creations

Did you catch the Little Laos on the Prairie interview with Carol Rasaphangthong, founder of Cool Town Creations. You don't often hear about Lao American artists who are working in film and stop-motion animation, so this is a very positive step towards what will hopefully be growing field for many of us. It's worth comparing it to the journey of Iowa-based educator and digital animator Peter Chanthanakone.

Laotian American poem in Mekong Review

Laotian American poet Krysada Panusith Phounsiri is featured in the November 2016-January 2017 issue of Mekong Review.

Also noted in this issue are poets Maung Philar and Khai Q. Nguyen. Founded in October, 2015, Mekong Review is a quarterly literary journal publishing fiction, essays, reviews and poetry from and about Southeast Asia.

Krysada Panusith Phounsiri is a Lao-American artist and engineer. He was born in Laos in 1988 and came to America with his family in 1989. A graduate of UC Berkeley in 2010, he holds a degree in Physics and Astrophysics Double Major and also a minor in Poetry. His debut collection is Dance Among Elephants, was published by Sahtu Press in 2015. His work has been featured in the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement and the Smithsonian’s “A Day In The Life Of Asian America” digital exhibit. He recently received first place for Poem of the Year in the Rhysling Awards of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.