Gaoyong Yang-Vang, also known as Gao, is a graduate student at Fresno State getting her MFA in poetry. She serves as a Graduate Student Assistant/Labber Fellow in Juan Felipe Herrera’s Laureate Lab Visual Wordist Studio at Fresno State. On top of these two roles, Gao is also the president of the Fresno State student organization Hmong American Ink and Stories (HAIS), and a Fresno State Teaching Associate for English 5A. Gao’s work has appeared in Flies Cockroaches and Poets (Spring 2021 issue), and hais: a literary journal (Spring 2020 issue). Gao has participated in various reading events such as Rogue Fest, LitHop, and the San Joaquin Literary Association’s Rough Drafts. She has won the Soul Vang poetry prize, received the Soul Vang scholarship, and awarded the Edward and Alberta Brown Scholarship.