Teresa Mei Chuc

Teresa Mei Chuc was born in Saigon, Vietnam. Shortly after the Vietnam War, Chuc, her mother, and her brother were granted political asylum and settled in Pasadena, California. Her father remained in a Vietnamese “reeducation camp” for nine years. Chuc earned a BA in philosophy and credentials in primary and secondary education as well as an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Red Thread (2012), Keeper of the Winds (2014), and Invisible Light (2018). Her many chapbooks include Truth is Black Rubber (2010), Year of the Hare (2013), and How One Loses Notes and Sounds (2016). Chuc’s poetry engages memory, trauma, healing, and her family’s particular history of the Vietnam War. In an interview with Rattle magazine, Chuc said of the poems in Red Thread, “I felt an almost urgent need to document my family’s experiences for them and for my children. … I felt that there was this big story about war and humanity and my family was part of it, not by choice but by chance.”

Chuc is a fellow of and teacher consultant for the Los Angeles Writing Project and teaches writing and literature at a public high school. She is founder and editor in chief of Shabda Press and a member of the Coast to Coast Poetry Press Collective.