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The 2019 Emerging Voices at The Virgil

the 2019 Emerging Voices Fellows

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PEN America and The Virgil present a reading by the 2019 Emerging Voices Fellows Judy Choi, Anthony Hoang, Fajer Alexander Khansa, T.K. Lê, and Dare Williams. Join us for an evening full of readings, music, and drinks! Featuring musical guest Adámas.

Please note the venue is 21+. Street parking is available and rideshare is recommended!


Judy ChoiJudy Choi received her masters in social work from Hunter College in New York. Most recently, she was head case manager for InsideOUT Writers, Los Angeles. She is currently at work on a short story collection based on her Texas childhood. She resides in the Los Angeles area with her 11-year-old son, her dog, and her cat.

Anthony HoangAnthony Hoang is a commercial insurance underwriter living in Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of California, Irvine, with a degree in economics and political science. He is currently working on a novel telling the story of two generations of a Chinese-Vietnamese family set in 1970s Vietnam and present-day America.

Fajer KhansaFajer Alexander Khansa was born and raised in Lattakia, Syria, and Tokyo, Japan. In 2005, he moved to the United States, where he completed his studies at the University of Southern California. His writing has appeared in Tin House and The Normal School. He is working on a short story collection.

T.K. LêT.K. Lê is from Westminster, California. An alum of the VONA Voices summer writing workshop, she has shared her work on KPCC’s Take Two, as well as on stage for ALOUD and Tuesday Night Project. Her essay “Part of Memory is Forgetting” appears in the W. W. Norton anthology Inheriting the War. Her current collection of poems is inspired by the Lambretta her father threw into the ocean in the hours before he left Vietnam in 1975.

Dare WilliamsDare Williams is an HIV-positive poet, artist, and activist native to Southern California. Dare’s poetry has been featured in magazines including Starrfucker. An alum of Home School Claremont, he is currently working on a poetry collection confronting the erasure of queer culture.