Hi there! My name is Michelle and I am a 22-year-old Asian-American poet, author, and multimedia artist based in Northern Virginia. This website is a home for my creative portfolio.
Friends, family, readers, and reviewers alike have praised my artistic commitment to showcasing vulnerability, intensity, and intimacy in my published works. My debut collection of poetry and hybrid prose, Cul-de-sac Angels (2021), celebrates suburban nostalgia, complicated adolescence, victories against mental illness, and the feminine, confessional soul. As a writer, I strive to unapologetically combine realism and folklore, straddling the line between fiction and nonfiction.
In May 2021, I graduated summa cum laude from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia with dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in English (Literature and Language; Creative Writing) and Communication Science and Social Inquiry. I take tremendous pride in calling myself a Hokie, and am endlessly grateful for the transformative years of my life I spent dreaming in the mountains of Appalachia. Sense of place is also a running theme in my work. I was born and raised in Northern Virginia and have since returned to the area post-graduation. The small corner of Lake Ridge, Virginia has been a source of inspiration to me for over two decades now. I find that I cannot separate my hometown from my writing voice— and I have grown to love that.
My writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in the D.C. Metro region, receiving multiple awards throughout my time at Woodbridge Senior High School (Class of 2018). I have been published in various editions of Eddas (WSHS) and Silhouette (VT) literary magazines. In 2020, I was featured as a local artist and innovator by PW Perspective, a media publication focused on showcasing the diverse voices of Prince William County, Virginia. In the same year, a collection of my poetry written during the COVID-19 pandemic was published in Mim Magazine. I was recognized as a Top 10 Finalist for the Giovanni-Steger Poetry Prize of Virginia Tech (sponsored by internationally renowned poet Nikki Giovanni) in the spring of 2021. My senior thesis on the Brontë sisters—specifically Charlotte—was published in Philologia, Virginia Tech’s undergraduate research journal operated by the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Prior to graduation, I won the English department’s 2021 Creative Writing Award for Fiction.
I am currently working as a Marketing and Publicity Manager for Amplify Publishing, an imprint of Mascot Books. As an author myself, helping other authors promote their work in sustainable, exciting ways is one of my many passions. In the future, I hope to exercise my passion for people in the classroom setting, teaching secondary and university-level English.
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