Thao Worra is the first Laotian American to receive a Fellowship in Literature from the United States government's National Endowment for the Arts.

Thao Worra attended Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio from 1991 to 1997, studying communications and philosophy/religion with a focus on non-Western cultures.

Some of his earliest writing first appeared in the Otterbein College literary magazine Quiz and Quill and the campus newspaper, the Tan and Cardinal.

A widely published Laotian writer, Thao Worra's work appears in over 90 publications including the Bamboo Among the Oaks anthology, the journalsWhistling Shade, Urban Pioneer, Unarmed, the Asian Pacific Journal and the Journal of the Asian American Renaissance and the anthology Outsiders Within.

His style is frequently experimental and draws from a variety of modern and contemporary influences, including science fiction and horror.

Thao Worra's chapbook The Tuk-Tuk Diaries: My Dinner With Clusterbombs was printed by Unarmed Press in 2003 in a limited edition.

Sphinx House Press released Touching Detonations in the same year, exploring the issue of unexploded ordnance in Laos.

Thao Worra's first full-length book of speculative poetry, On The Other Side Of The Eye was released in August 2007 from Sam's Dot Publishing, based in Iowa.

In the summer of 2009, he released an additional book of poetry, Tanon Sai Jai based on the Lao American journey.

His play Black Box was performed at the Sex/No Sex Festival, Ensemble Studio Theater, New York, NY in November 2006.

He also assisted in the editing of the modernized theater adaptation of Phadaeng and Nang Ai, a traditional Lao/Isan Love Story by Suthasinee Srisawat in May 2007 for Bakka Magazine.

Thao Worra organized several public readings and exhibitions of Laotian and Asian American artists in Minnesota, including Emerging Voices (2002), The Five Senses Show (2002), Lao'd and Clear (2004), and Giant Lizard Theater (2005).

In 2014 he joined Sahtu Press, a non-profit Lao American literary publisher in the San Francisco Bay Area.