Michelle Phương Hồ is the author of Bone Symphony, forthcoming from BOA Editions in Fall 2026.
Her work appears in Nat Brut, Ninth Letter, Poetry, Volume, and elsewhere, and has been recognized with the 2024 Ninth Letter Literary Award in Poetry, the 2024 BRINK Literary Journal Award for Hybrid Writing, and the 2020 Frontier Poetry Industry Prize. She received her MFA in poetry from NYU.
Born to Vietnamese refugees, she lives in New Haven, CT, where she gathers writers and artists for workshops, readings, and meals.
from “Bone Symphony”
Poetry Magazine, May 2025
Making my way home
is the only ritual I know.
Making a small pile
of my dead on the windowsill
I cup my hands against
the glass like
children do, blowing hot air
into the skeletal frames.
Each prisoner’s singing
so clear
inside the funeral, I stood
with them
a tiny flame