Sokunthary Svay is a Pushcart-nominated[1] Khmer poet, writer and musician from the Bronx. She and her family were refugees from Cambodia who survived the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. As of 2016, Svay is the poetry editor for Newtown Literary, and a founding member and Board President of the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association (CALAA).[2] Svay was a subject in New York magazine’s “Living in a Sanctuary City” portfolio[3] and featured in the New York Immigration Coalition's This is Our NY, broadcast in Times Square. She has been published in Women's Studies Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, LONTAR, and Mekong Review, Perigee, and Margins. She is a recipient of the American Opera Projects' Composer & the Voice Fellowship for 2017-2019. Her first poetry collection, Apsara in New York (Willow Books), was published in 2017 and had a debut at Poets House.[4] Svay is the author of the memoir Put It On Record: A Memoir-Archive (2023).

Sokunthary Svay
BornSokunthary Svay
Thailand (refugee camp), Thailand
NationalityAmerican
GenrePoetry

References

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  1. ^ "Poets Network & Exchange Magazine Announces Pushcart Prize Nominees". Poets Network & Exchange, Inc. 30 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Introducing our new Poetry Editor, Sokunthary Svay". Newtown Literary. Newtown Literary Journal. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  3. ^ Walsh, James D.; Nick Tabor (13 December 2016). "44 Immigrant New Yorkers on Living in a Sanctuary City". Daily Intelligencer. New York. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  4. ^ Drake, Asa. "Wearing the Fabric of Another Country: Re-imagining Diaspora in Sokunthary Stay's Apsara in New York." The American Poetry Review, Jan.-Feb. 2018, p. 39.