A COLLECTION OF SPECULATIVE POETRY BY A LAOTIAN-AMERICAN POET WITH ROOTS IN THE WAR IN SE ASIA AND IN THE PLIGHT OF REFUGEES.

A book of poetry by Lao Amercian writer Bryan Thao Worra and artist Nor Sanavongsay examining the Southeast Asian diaspora in America and beyond. Cover by Sisavnh Phoutavong Houghton.

In this new collection by Lao American poet Bryan Thao Worra in collaboration with the artist S. Bay Koulabdara, readers will be taken on a journey through the eyes of a generation caught in a pivotal transition for the Lao at the end of a complex conflict and the start of an American entering a new era of computerization and interconnection. American Laodyssey is at once a historic and mythic collection of over 55 classic poems of Bryan Thao Worra from the 1990s to the 2020s and new artworks by S. Bay Koulabdara. Personally selected by the artists, these poems provide a retrospective of three decades of creative writing responding to a Laos in transition in America and across the globe. These particular poems are among the most noteworthy in his body of work, the subject of academic papers and poems by other writers, in addition to his major award winners. These are among his most frequently taught poems, reprinted in global anthologies, newspapers and journals, exhibits, and events such as the 2012 London Summer Games or the Smithsonian Asian American Literature Festival. Some have never been collected before in a book, while others take on new meaning next to newer and older poems and artworks.American Laodyssey provides an ideal introduction for new readers with extensive notes, a historical timeline of Lao American history, and even helpful phrases in English and Lao for those in the middle of their own American Laodyssey and beyond.

In the depths, half-hidden under still waters, await strange and vicious creatures .... Cthulhu, Godzilla and nagas mingle in Demonstra, a speculative poem collection which assembles 20 years of work by Bryan Thao Worra. Demonstra is a book of things glimpsed out of the corner of the eye. It is about a reality that can never fully be demonstrated, authenticated, dissected, for certain visions always remain in shadows. Bryan 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 received the Asian Pacific Leadership Award from the State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans for Leadership in the Arts in 2009. His previous books include On The Other Side Of The Eye and Touching Detonations. He was a Cultural Olympian during the 2012 London Summer Games representing Laos. He's a professional member of the Horror Writer Association and a regular contributor to Innsmouth Magazine.