Cathy Linh Che

Jan 17, 2024 | newsbreak.com | Cathy Linh Che

In 1975, my newly married parents fled Vietnam on a boat. Months later, while living in a refugee camp in the Philippines, they were hired to play extras in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War film " Apocalypse Now ," which came out 45 years ago and won two Oscars . Though my parents played a variety of characters – translators, Viet Cong, drivers, POWs – they had no face time and no speaking parts.

Jan 17, 2024 | usatoday.com | Cathy Linh Che

In 1975, my newly married parents fled Vietnam on a boat. Months later, while living in a refugee camp in the Philippines, they were hired to play extras in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War film "Apocalypse Now," which came out 45 years ago and won two Oscars. Though my parents played a variety of characters – translators, Viet Cong, drivers, POWs – they had no face time and no speaking parts. They escaped a war only to be cast in a reenactment that placed them at the margins of their own story.

Oct 14, 2023 | poetryfoundation.org | Cathy Linh Che

Cue soundtrack. The undead include:               my grandmother, my older sister,               my uncle, who was a priest,               four cousins, still children. They eat the pomelos we set at the altar,               all in a circle,               peeling the membranes,               dropping the segments into each other’s mouths. I am the director. The zombies don’t look like zombies.

Oct 11, 2023 | thebeliever.net | Cathy Linh Che

Cathy Linh Che I retrofitted a shelter. Burned driftwood. Drove a gash across the country,slept in the car, dreaming,of you. I was in love and erasing the gap. I drew a line and watched it shake. Dark rose of the afternoon,spillway into the delta,I wept, blistering. Pinned photos to a clothesline—and leapt into each one.

May 2, 2023 | lithub.com | Cathy Linh Che |Kyle Lucia Wu

While writing our children’s book, An Asian American A to Z: A Children’s Guide To Our History, we knew where to begin: with the letter A:“A is for Asian American! Many fought for you, and a name for us all, collective and true. Immigrants, refugees, workers, and students.