Mai Nguyen Do (Đỗ Nguyên Mai) is a Vietnamese writer and educator from Southern California. They are a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside.

Mai’s research focuses on immigrant and refugee communities in California, including the effects of welfare programs, policing, and immigration enforcement on Southeast Asian refugees. Mai is also interested in processes of racialization and identity formation more broadly.

Drawing upon both their life and research experiences, Mai’s literary work often explores gaps left within the archive — spaces usually carved out not only by the mere passage of time, but also by the interests of the state — in hopes of outlining moments and people those in power try to render indistinct; additionally, their poetry explores other forms of state repression and issues of climate disaster.

Mai is the author of Ghosts Still Walking (Platypus Press, 2016) and Battlefield Blooming (Sahtu Press, 2019). They are the winner of the 2019 Locked Horn Press Publication Prize and a 2019 Sophie Kerr Prize finalist. In 2020, they were also nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received support from the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund for their literary work.

Mai is a proud graduate of College of the Canyons and Washington College, and they earned their master’s degree in political science from the University of California, Riverside. They also have substantial professional experience in state legislative advocacy, state elections, and local elections, which they bring to the classroom as a political science educator. In their free time, Mai enjoys cooking, going to estate sales, and playing video games.