ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Hmong American literary and visual art through the analytic of karst mountains, foregrounding an understanding of place and meaning-making that is rooted in the Hmong imaginary rather than the recuperative narrative of the Secret War. Pulling together the works of the poet Mai Der Vang, the writer Kao Kalia Yang, and the visual and performative artist Dej Txiaj Ntsim Koua Mai Yang, this chapter reads across genres to reveal a repositioning of the Secret War and refugeeness that makes way for the richness and fullness of Hmong and Hmong American experiences and stories that have often been flattened by tropes of Western military intervention and resettlement.
