PD Soros Fellowships for New Americans

If you are an applicant and need to sign into the online application, you can find the link on the "Apply" page of our website: Apply Page.

If you are a fellow looking to login, please note that we are currently updating our backend system for managing Fellow data. In the meantime, to update your information for the Fellowship, please send updates to Nikka Landau at nlandau@pdsoros.org.

Meet the Fellows

Kao Kalia Yang, 2003

Activist & Professor, Author

Kao Kalia Yang is an immigrant from Thailand

Fellowship awarded to support work towards an MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University

Kao Kalia Yang is a Hmong-American writer. She is the author of the memoirs The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, The Song Poet, and Somewhere in the Unknown World. Yang is also the author of the children’s books A Map Into the World, The Shared Room, The Most Beautiful Thing, Yang Warriors, and From the Tops of the Trees. She co-edited the ground-breaking collection What God is Honored Here?: Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss By and For Native Women and Women of Color.

Yang’s work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, the PEN USA literary awards, the Dayton’s Literary Peace Prize, as Notable Books by the American Library Association, Kirkus Best Books of the Year, the Heartland Bookseller’s Award, and garnered four Minnesota Book Awards.

She lives in Minnesota with her family. Kao Kalia Yang teaches and speaks across the nation.

Education

MFA Creative Writing | Columbia University 2005
BA American Studies | Carleton College 2003

Work History

Author, Activist & Professor

12.19.19

2020: A Preview Of Books By Paul & Daisy Soros Fellows

In 2020, several books by Paul & Daisy Soros Fellows will be published on subjects ranging from immigration and refugees, to loneliness and health, to women's rights and the 19th amendment.

12.18.17

LA Times: Kao Kalia Yang's "Song Poet" Is One Of Viet Thanh Nguyen's Two Favorite Reads Of 2017

09.12.16

2016-2017 Edition: The New American

The New American features stories about Paul & Daisy Soros Fellows making an impact across sectors and across the country. Read about immigrants and children of immigrants and how they are giving back to the United States.

03.16.16

Kao Kalia Yang (2003 Fellow) Chronicles Her Father’s Life From Laos to Minnesota in "The Song Poet"

Kao Kalia Yang's (2003 Fellow) forthcoming book, "The Song Poet," chronicles her father's life from Laos, to Thailand, to the United States. Kalia's father, as a song poet, was responsible for documenting the life and times of his community when he...

Kao Kalia Yang, 2003

MFA Creative Writing | Columbia University 2005

BA American Studies | Carleton College 2003

Author, Activist & Professor

2020: A Preview Of Books By Paul & Daisy Soros Fellows

LA Times: Kao Kalia Yang's "Song Poet" Is One Of Viet Thanh Nguyen's Two Favorite Reads Of 2017

2016-2017 Edition: The New American

Kao Kalia Yang (2003 Fellow) Chronicles Her Father’s Life From Laos to Minnesota in "The Song Poet"