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Hmong American poet Mai Der Vang has been awarded the prestigious national 2016 Walt Whitman Award, which is given annually by the Academy of American Poets for an outstanding debut poetry book.Vang will receive a $5,000 cash prize and her submitted manuscript, titled, will be published in April 2017 by Graywolf Press. In addition, she'll receive an all-expenses-paid six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in the Umbrian region of Italy.is a collection of poems inspired by the flight of the Hmong people caused by the so-called Secret War in Laos during the Vietnam War era -- a defining event in the history of the Hmong diaspora."I tried to infuse some of the trauma of the Secret War into my poems," Vang tells the"The selection of Mai Der Vang’s Afterland is an inspired and inspiring one," said Graywolf Press executive editor Jeff Shotts. "This book gives us a voice and a cultural narrative that is little heard in American poetry, and it gives us a moving, searing portrait of the resilience of Hmong refugees and immigrants that feels both overdue and immediately timely."The Academy of American Poets will purchase and distribute thousands of copies offor its members and will feature Vang in itsmagazine and on its website Vang, who was born and raised in Fresno, California, teaches English at Clovis Community College. She earned a bachelor's degree in English at the University of California, Berkeley, and a master of fine arts degree at Columbia University. While at Columbia she won the Corrente Poetry Fellowship.Her poetry has appeared in, and elsewhere. Her essays have been published in the, the, and the, among other outlets.More here: Mai Der Vang wins 2016 Walt Whitman poetry award