Chanlee Luu is a Vietnamese-Chinese American writer. She received her MFA in creative writing from Hollins University, BS in chemical engineering and minor in Global Sustainability from UVA, where she competed in poetry slams. She writes about identity, pop culture, science, politics, and everything in between. She is the winner of the 2024 Jean Feldman Poetry Award from the Washington Writer’s Publishing House, which published her debut collection, The Machine Autocorrects Code to I. One of her poems was on display at “50 Years of HOPE and HA-HAs,” a Vietnamese American art exhibition that ​​celebrates the expansiveness of the diaspora, rooted in the DMV. Her work also appears in Capital Queer: A Pride Celebration chapbook and the forthcoming America’s Future anthology, both from WWPH.

My artistic practice starts with observation & a question, the same basis for the scientific method. Then that turns into an idea for a poem. I used to primarily structure my poems through rhyme and forms (using Excel spreadsheets to map them out), but now I just write, thinking about language in lines, and editing as I go. Then, I get feedback from others, and consider craft more in the revision process. Most importantly, I try to have fun because writing poems is one of the few things that bring me pure joy, being able play with words. I tend to incorporate allusions a lot in my poems as an act of honoring other artists/thinkers and as a reminder that art is never really a solitary act, it is always building on the work/ideas of others. It is also a dialogue, an act of community building. I’m also an amateur photographer; if selected, I would love to break out my camera and take pictures, and edit, and create collages!

As an engineer, I’ve always been interested in how things work. This includes how cities work: from arts & culture, transportation, energy, marketing/publicity/tourism, and urban planning/sustainability/zoning (in which I took a couple of classes as a global sustainability minor), and communities/people, which should always be at the center of any planning process. As a result of this, I hope to learn how Roanoke’s gears turn, with people as its energy source. I also hope to learn more about Roanoke artists and be part of such a rich arts community; the Taubman, the Daisy Art Parade, and the Sidewalk Art Show, to name a few, have filled me with such joy and serve as a reminder that art is meant to be experienced with others. As someone who recently finished a certificate in Biotechnology from Virginia Western, I also am interested in the dichotomy of our fast-growing biotech industry in juxtaposition with the arts. There’s so much untapped potential in that intersection. Henrietta Lacks’ cells fueled the biotech field, and cells are what make us living beings. I’m interested in learning how our past can shape our future.

When my mom’s side of the family immigrated to America, they lived in Rocky Mount, VA. My mom commuted to Roanoke to work in local textile/sewing companies. I grew up coming to Roanoke to eat, to the malls, to Virginia Western Community College for Future Business Leaders of America regional conferences, to field trips and shows at the Roanoke Civic Center (now the Berglund Center), and I always loved seeing the star, a symbol for hope. I love the idea of having Sister Cities, and I love all the restaurants and immigrant communities (including the Vietnamese one- I’m very grateful to have a temple nearby where I can go for food and holiday celebrations). Family, my childhood, places/spaces, and history are all sources of inspiration in my work. As a kid I didn’t appreciate the mountains enough, but after a trip to Florida, feeling only flat land and a museum exhibit about Eastern reverence of rocks/mountains, I returned with a profound appreciation and awe at the sight of the Blue Ridges every day I drive.