Брайан Тао Ворра: Американский писатель лаосского происхождения

Laotian American writer

Bryan Thao Worra (born January 1, 1973) is a Laotian American writer and poet. Thao Worra is the first Laotian American to receive a Fellowship in Literature from the United States government's National Endowment for the Arts. He was selected to represent Laos during the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Bryan Thao Worra was born Thao Somnouk Silosoth in Vientiane, capital of the Kingdom of Laos, on January 1, 1973, during the Laotian Civil War (1954–1975). Thao Worra was adopted when he was three days old by an American pilot named John Worra, who flew for Royal Air Lao. He came to the United States in July 1973. Thao Worra's early years were spent in Missoula, Montana, Anchorage, Alaska, and Saline, Michigan. in 2013 through Innsmouth Free Press. Thao Worra was a 2002 Minnesota Playwrights' Center Many Voices Fellow. His play Black Box was performed at the Sex/No Sex Festival, Ensemble Studio Theater, New York, NY in November 2006. He also assisted in the editing of the modernized theater adaptation of Phadaeng and Nang Ai, a traditional Lao/Isan Love Story by Suthasinee Srisawat in May 2007 for Bakka Magazine. Thao Worra was an active member of the SatJaDham Lao Literary Project, working to promote the work of Laotian and Hmong artists and writers. Thao Worra organized several public readings and exhibitions of Laotian and Asian American artists in Minnesota, including Emerging Voices (2002), The Five Senses Show (2002), Lao'd and Clear (2004), and Giant Lizard Theater (2005). He has assisted and performed with professional storytelling groups in Minnesota. He was a key figure in convening the National Lao American Writers Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota in August 2010. He also organized the Legacies of War: Refugee Nation exhibit and multidisciplinary arts festival in October 2010 at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis. Thao Worra often writes as a freelance reporter for several Asian American newspapers including Asian American Press, interviewing numerous Asian American artists and covering community events. He is a regular contributor to the Twin Cities Daily Planet. He has written op ed columns for the Pioneer Press and community newspapers, primarily on Asian American subjects. He is also a frequent writer for Little Laos on the Prairie, a Minnesota based Lao American online publication founded by Chanida Phaengdara Potter.

Thao Worra typically works with community service agencies such as Hmong National Development, the National Youth Leadership Council, Asian Media Access, and Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly, the Lao Assistance Center and the Hawthorne Neighborhood Council. In the 2000s, he volunteered extensively with the Hmong American Institute for Learning and briefly served as its interim executive director in 2005. Thao Worra has been a consultant to the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Minnesota Historical Society, the Minnesota Humanities Commission, and Legacies of War, a non profit organization that addresses issues of unexploded ordnance in Laos. He has presented for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, including their CTRL+ALT Culture Lab on Imagined Futures in November 2016 in New York and the 2019 Asian American Literature Festival in Washington D. C.

Thao Worra was an early volunteer of AsianAmericanPoetry. com as a member of their advisory board. He served briefly as a volunteer editor of Bakka Magazine, a Lao literary journal. He frequently contributes to Little Laos on the Prairie, a Minnesota based blog serving the Lao American community. In 2008, he was elected the president of SF Minnesota and continues to assist them since the expiration of his term. He has served as the creative works editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement since 2008. In 2014 he joined Sahtu Press, a non profit Lao American literary publisher in the San Francisco Bay Area. Thao Worra is a member of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association. In 2009, he was elected to the board of directors of the Loft Literary Center to serve a three year term. Thao Worra became the treasurer of the Science Fiction Poetry Association in 2013, and was elected president of the organization in 2016.

Thao Worra holds over 20 awards for his literary work and community service, including his arts leadership. In 2009, Thao Worra became the first Laotian American writer to receive a fellowship in literature from the National Endowment for the Arts. He was recognized in 2009 by the State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans with the Asian Pacific Leadership Award for Excellence in the Arts.