Koa Kalia Yang is a first-generation graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University. Having spent the first six years of her life in Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp before moving to America, Yang is an advocate for Hmong cultural awareness in America. After moving to America, her family lives in a low-income housing and receives welfare. Because her parents aren’t able to work due to taking English-language and vocational classes, Yang’s family lives in poverty for most of her youth. She is acutely aware of how Americans treat her family differently, and she decides that the Hmong aren’t really at home in America; similarly to the refugee camps, America is just providing safety for the Hmong, but not really welcoming them to be part of the cultural fabric of the country.

Myth and stories are a major influence on Yang’s life. Without a written language, Hmong history has been traditionally passed through storytelling. Yang grew up listening to her grandma’s stories about her past, stories that were often an even mix of the fantastical and the realistic. Due to this, Yang grew up with a magical view of the world, often imagining dragons waiting under water and tiger men hiding in the jungles.