Bamboo Among the Oaks

The first anthology of Hmong American literature, and the book most often named as the point where that literature became visible to itself. Mai Neng Moua, who founded the journal Paj Ntaub Voice, gathered poetry, fiction, essays, and drama from writers who in 2002 had almost nowhere else to publish. Several contributors went on to become the established Hmong American voices of the following two decades, which makes this both an anthology and a record of a beginning. Its unevenness is part of its value: it captures a literature in the act of forming rather than after it settled. For a catalog built on Hmong writing, this is the origin document, and it belongs near the front of any serious reading order. For adult readers, university courses in Asian American literature, and writers looking for the tradition they are working inside.