Kosal Khiev

Kosal Khiev was born in Khao-I-Dang in 1980.^[1] He grew up in Santa Ana, California. At 16, he was involved in a gang shoot-out. He was deported to Cambodia in 2011 after being released from prison. He began experimenting with poetry while in solitary confinement.^[1] In Phnom Penh, he met filmmaker Masahiro Sugano, and multimedia artist Anida Yoeu Ali, who made the movie Cambodian Son about Khiev's life.^[2]

Kosal Khiev's work focuses on the transformative power of art and the US justice system among other themes.^[2] Khiev represented Cambodia in the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.^[3]