Blia Xiong

Blia Xiong came to the United States in 1976, fleeing war torn Laos. She settled in Seattle, and in 1976, she formed a Hmong association to preserve the traditional music, dance, crafts, and stories of her homeland.

Cathy Spagnoli, a professional storyteller in Seattle, started to collect stories from Southeast Asian refugees in 1983 as a way to build cross-cultural bridges. She met Blia Xiong at that time, and they have since worked together on various Hmong tales.

Nancy Hom is a fine artist, printmaker, and graphic designer who is based in San Francisco, California. Her medium for this book was based on traditional Hmong story cloths, which is a technique of colorful multi-imaged embroidery.