Hoang­mai (Mai) Pham is a Viet­namese Amer­i­can refugee, physi­cian, artist, moth­er, and debut mem­oirist. Bridge from Saigon, was short­list­ed for Black Spring Press’ Inter­na­tion­al Bev­er­ly Prize for Lit­er­a­ture. At six, Mai fled with her fam­i­ly from Saigon on a car­go plane at the end of the war to the Unit­ed States. She went on to earn degrees from Har­vard and Johns Hop­kins. She pur­sued answers to mys­ter­ies about her fam­i­ly and her own psy­cho­log­i­cal jour­ney with inter­views, voy­ages back to Viet­nam, and a sci­en­tif­ic healer’s eye on her trau­mas. Mai was the first Chief Inno­va­tion Offi­cer for Medicare and Med­ic­aid. When not mak­ing changes in Amer­i­can health­care, she hosts a bak­ing club and rel­ish­es in her ​“Zoom­a­gogue” Jew­ish community.