Short bio:
Jer Xiong is a Hmong writer and editor. She received her MFA in Creative Writing (focus in Creative Nonfiction) from California State University, Fresno, with an emphasis in editing and publishing. She was born and raised in Northern California, but currently works and resides in the Greater Los Angeles area. She’s a member of the Hmong American Writers’ Circle (HAWC). Her works have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Lunch Ticket, and elsewhere. Her 2023 essay, “Calling,” for The Cincinnati Review was selected for the Notable List in Best American Essays 2024.
She is currently seeking literary representation and is open to Hmong-related projects.
Long bio:
Jer Xiong is a Hmong American writer. She received her MFA in Creative Writing, specializing in Creative Nonfiction (with emphasis in Publishing and Editing) from California State University, Fresno. She received her BA in English (English Studies) from California State University, Chico. She’s a member of the Hmong American Writers’ Circle (HAWC).
Currently, she’s an editorial assistant for the media organization Zócalo Public Square. She’s a nonfiction reader for Split Lip Press.
She has been an instructor, tutor, and mentor, communications assistant, and editorial assistant. Her editorial experiences include being a student editor for the Watershed Review and the Nonfiction Editor for The Normal School as well as an editorial member for selecting manuscripts for the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Additionally, she was the main editor and publication designer of hais: a literary journal for two years, which was created by the Fresno State student organization she co-founded called Hmong American Ink & Stories (HAIS). At Fresno State, she also was a part of the editorial committee for selecting works for Spectrum, the Young Writers’ Conference annual publication. Recently, she was a Publishing and Editing Coordinator for the Asian American Writers Coalition, where the anthology published in 2026.
Her writings have been published in or is forthcoming at Two Hawks Quarterly, Watershed Review, Lunch Ticket, Los Angeles Times, Zócalo Public Square, The Cincinnati Review, maivmai; glassworks: flashglass, Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, hais: a literary journal, (559) JOU-RNAL; Celebrate Hmong; Flies, Cockroaches & Poets, and Pos Moua’s Karst Mountains Will Bloom.
She’s working on a debut collection of memoir-in-essays while also writing flash essays and occasionally working on poems. Her writings often include thinking about identity, family, community, home, belonging, relationships, gender roles, trauma, disabilities, connection, accessibility, and love.
She enjoys reading creative nonfiction writings and works by the Hmong and Southeast Asian diaspora. In general, she’s interested in works by writers who come from communities that have been historically marginalized.