Author Kao Kalia Yang speaks at St. Kate’s One Read for Racial Justice event

Twin Cities-based, Hmong American author Kao Kalia Yang visited The O’Shaughnessy on October 29, sharing stories of her growing up years and her journey as a writer, as part of St. Catherine University’s 2026 One Read for Racial Justice.

Yang’s most recent book, Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir, was selected by the One Read committee as this year’s selection for the annual campus-wide project that raises awareness about racial justice issues and creates opportunities for dialogue within classrooms and the wider community. Yang was joined at the O’Shaughnessy event by Emily Bright of MPR News, who facilitated the Q&A.

“I believe the purpose of art is to make transparent the human condition,” Yang said.

Within the pages of Somewhere in the Unknown World, and in her multiple children’s books and memoirs, she achieves this with compelling insight, courage, and compassion.

“Like so many refugees all over the world, they’ve been judged so often for the things they’re not,” Yang said about the people whose stories she’s written. “They want to be understood for who they are.” 

When Yang was 6 years old, she and her family were resettled from a Vietnamese refugee camp to Minnesota. She entered the public school system in St. Paul, where she thrived academically, but struggled to find her voice as she straddled two cultures. Yang began the O’Shaughnessy evening by reading her children’s book, The Rock in My Throat, which details her own journey as a selective mute who did not speak at school until she attended college. 

“It has taken me a long time to cultivate the voice I am speaking to you with,” Yang said. “It’s hard to believe you have a voice that the world will listen to … when you’re a figure in an auditorium listening to people speak who don’t look like you or sound like you.” 

Amplifying stories of those whose voices are overlooked is a throughline of Yang’s work. As she answered Bright’s questions and took questions from the audience, Yang reflected on the importance of including voices like hers, and other minority voices, in community conversations such as One Read for Racial Justice.

“I think it is the work of educators, myself included, to make sure that the diversity of our students is reflected in the material that we teach — that their truths and their stories are amplified on stages like this one,” Yang said.

She concluded the evening by signing books for the St. Kate’s community and audience members. (Continued below)

Kao Kalia Yang is a teacher, speaker, and writer. She is the award-winning author of the memoirs The Latehomecomer, The Song Poet, and Where Rivers Part. She co-edited the groundbreaking book What God is Honored Here?: Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss By and For Native Women and Women of Color. She is a librettist for The Song Poet opera, commissioned by Minnesota Opera. 

Yang is a recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award and seven Minnesota Book Awards. Her work has also been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts. She was The Minnesota Star Tribune’s 2024 Artist of the Year and holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Carleton College. Yang is a McKnight, Soros, and Guggenheim fellow.

One Read for Racial Justice is an annual, community reading program whose goals are to center BIPOC stories, create opportunities for dialogues across difference and discipline, inspire action around justice issues, and to promote community. It is led by the St. Kate’s library in collaboration with a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, and alumni across departments and disciplines. Learn more about One Read for Racial Justice.