Vang was born on a CIA military base, Long Cheng, Laos, at the end of the Vietnam War, and immigrated to the United States in 1980.

A fiction writer, poet, playwright,[2] and former journalist,[3] Vang has devoted much of her professional life to capturing Hmong folktales[4] on paper.

The daughter of a major in the Royal Lao Army and a shaman, Vang grew up in her early years in Thai refugee camps before resettling in the United States Midwest, with the majority of her formative years spent in the Twin Cities and the Frogtown quarter of St. Paul, Minnesota.

The essay titled, Butterfly Cycles, was published in "Riding Shotgun:Women Write about their Mothers," by Borealis Press in April and the short story, Meet Mr. Krenshaw, was published in "Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories" with Lethe Press in May.

Well-known examples of her poetry include the poem 'Extraordinary Hmong,' originally written in response to African American poet Maya Angelou's 'Phenomenal Woman' and Vang's poem 'Undiscovered Country' that includes references to Star Trek, Shakespeare's Hamlet and John Cougar Mellencamp.

Vang's work is known for its frank confrontation of sex and sexuality, race, culture and racism, but also for its surprising subtlety and elaborate, yet accessible constructions and dark humor.

DISCONNECT has continued to be performed across the country including New York City, particularly since its appearance in the Hmong American literary anthology, Bamboo Among The Oaks in 2002.

Vang frequently travels abroad to collect folklore and contemporary life stories from Hmong expatriate communities around the world including France, Germany and Australia.