Sokunthary Svay was born in a refugee camp in Thailand shortly after her parents fled Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. They were sponsored to come to the United States and resettled in the Bronx where she grew up. She is currently poetry editor for Newtown Literary, the only literary journal for the borough of Queens. A founding member of the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association (CALAA), she has received fellowships from the American Opera Project, Poets House, Willow Books, and CUNY, as well as commissions from Washington National Opera, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and ISSUE Project Room. In addition to publishing a poetry collection, Apsara in New York (Willow Books, 2017), Svay has had her writing anthologized and performed by actors and singers. Svay’s first opera, Woman of Letters, set by composer Liliya Ugay, received its world premiere at the Kennedy Center in January 2020 as part of the American Opera Initiative. The recent recipient of the OPERA America IDEA Grant, she is currently working on a new opera called Chhlong Tonle. She teaches English at Queens College.
With Poetic Theater Productions:
Featured Artist in Voices of the Neighborhood Open Mic Night with New York Theatre Workshop and Poetic Theater Productions
Featured Artist in Looking At the Past/Claiming Space
Featured Veteran Artist presenting “Re-Education Building”, a sequence poem about a Cambodian soldier who survived the Khmer Rouge regime and who resettles in NYC. “Re-Education Building” was presented before the October 5th, 2017 performance of Outside Paducah: The Wars At Home as part of the Veteran Voices 2017 Series.