The Antioch MFA in Creative Writing is proud to announce that Vietnamese American writer and multidisciplinary artist Cathy Linh Che has joined the MFA in Creative Writing program as Core Faculty in Poetry. Che comes to Antioch with over a decade of teaching experience at institutions including New York University, Fordham University, 92nd Street Y, and the Polytechnic University at NYU. She was Distinguished Visiting Professor and Writer in Residence at Sierra Nevada College and a member if the faculty in the low residency MFA program at the University of Nevada, Reno. For the past nine years, Che was the Executive Director of Kundiman, a national organization dedicated to the creation and cultivation of Asian American creative writing.
“We are delighted that Cathy is joining our team. Her incredible body of work, leadership skills, work ethic, and alignment with our program’s values and goals make her a wonderful addition to our team and to our community,” said Lisa Locascio Nighthawk, Chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program. “Cathy has a powerful track record as an advocate for writers, making her uniquely qualified to take on this important role within our program with its motto of ‘Community, Not Competition’! I look forward to working with her.”
Che is the author of Split, winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize, the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the Best Poetry Book Award from the Association of Asian American Studies, and the co-author, with Kyle Lucia Wu, of the children’s book An Asian American A to Z: a Children’s Guide to Our History.
Che’s writing has been published in The New Republic, The Nation, McSweeney’s, Best American Poetry, and Poetrymagazine. She has received awards from MacDowell, Bread Loaf, Tin House, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference.
Che is working on a poetry manuscript, a creative nonfiction manuscript, and a short documentary on her parents’ experiences as refugees who played extras on Apocalypse Now. Her video installation Appocalips is an Open Call commission with The Shed NY.
“I’m thrilled to join the Low-Residency MFA Creative Writing Program as Core Faculty in Poetry at Antioch, which is rooted in community engagement and the pursuit of social justice,” says Che.
Cathy Linh Che holds an MFA in Creative Writing in Poetry from New York University, an English Single Subject Teaching Credential from California State University, Long Beach, and a BA in English with a French Minor from Reed College.
