Dao Strom is a writer and musician based in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of two books of fiction, Grass Roof, Tin Roof (Mariner Books, 2003) and The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys (Counterpoint Press, 2006), and a hybrid-forms memoir, WE WERE MEANT TO BE A GENTLE PEOPLE (MPMP, 2015), accompanied by an album, East/West. Strom has received support for her work from the National Endowment for the Arts, (RACC) Regional Arts & Culture Council, Oregon Arts Commission, the Nelson Algren Award, and others. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. Strom was born in Vietnam and grew up in