EMDASH AKA EMILY LU GAO
(高璐璐)
Emdash AKA Emily Lu Gao (高璐璐) is a writer, artist, and daughter of Chinese immigrants. She writes to heal, grow, and decolonize. A 2025 LAMBDA Fellow, her work can be found in Poetry Northwest, Alocasia, Underblong, Tinderbox Poetry, Sine Theta, Poetry.Online, The Bellingham Review, Kweli Journal, and others. They’ve received funding from The Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, Jersey City Arts Council, Sundress Publications, Sunday Jump, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference and more. She has a BA in Asian American Studies from Pitzer College and a MFA in Poetry from Rutgers University-Newark. She has also learned equally as much if not more from community organizing and Southern California open mics. Until April 2026, her poem installation “Letter B” is on view at The Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles as part of the (Be)Spoken Poetry exhibit. When not writing, they are likely in SoCal being unserious. (She/They)
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
Maya Angelou
