Victoria Chang

“I always knew that grief was something I could smell. But I didn’t know that it’s not actually a noun but a verb. That it moves.“ 
_{- from: OBIT} 

Victoria Chang is an American writer, critic, editor and poet. 

She writes poetry that is both personal and hard hitting in how candidly she describes what it means to be the second generation and growing up in western society. Chang explores the gaze on Asian women in the United States and brings her poetry to life through rhythmic performances. She is inspired by art, which she skillfully and beautifully interweaves with the contemporary stories she tells. 

This is apparent in her poetry collection Barbie Chang (2017), in which she bends cultural objects and phenomena to her own will. Chang’s poetry book OBIT (2020), in which she explores the cultural impact of death on the living, won three awards, one of which was the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was named Best Book of the Year by several publications. Her first children’s book Is Mommy? was published in 2015 and was cited as a Notable Book by the New York Times. She also wrote the nonfiction book Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence and Grief (2021) and the anthology Asian American poetry: the next generation (2004). 

She is currently serving as the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech and as the Director of Poetry@Tech.