Thao Votang is a writer based in Austin, Texas. Her work has been published in Salon, Sightlines, Southwest Contemporary, Still: The Journal, and Lucky Jefferson. She co-edited Conflict of Interest, an arts & lit publication, and co-founded the Tiny Park arts space. When she’s not looking at art, she can be found reading one of the many books she has put in her bag or hidden under that couch cushion. Her fiction is informed by her experience as part of the Vietnamese diaspora deep in the lone star state, her interest in how we love our mothers, and the impending climate catastrophe.

Her debut novel, LIKE MOONLIGHT, follows Linh Ly who leads a perfectly ordinary life. She works an office job at a university, plays tennis once a week, has one good friend, and keeps to herself. But when her parents divorce and there is a shooting at the university, Linh’s stoic surface gives way to delusions and increasingly strange behavior. Linh begins to follow her mom on dates and stalks the men her mother sees. As Linh’s obsessions grow, her life veers away from her worn routines until she’s unable to sustain them and must confront them, and herself, head-on.

Thao is represented by Amanda Orozco.

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