Longlisted for the 2020 Dzanc Diverse Voices Prize under a previous manuscript title, Cartographies of Insurrection. Adapted as a full live performance with the Roanoke Ballet Theatre.
"Wildly inventive… the collection explores the complicated legacy of English, asking what it means for court proceedings to unfold in the language of the abuser."
"'Stay' is a 'good-bye' placed on the first rung of a love story. An echo."
Photo: Laura White, Roanoke Ballet Theatre
Performances
Terazawa's performance practice exists at the intersection of spiritual intervention, political disobedience, and somatic ritual. Much of her early work is deliberately undocumented — insisting on ephemerality and presence over archival capture.
Major Collaborations
Tetra Nova BalletRoanoke Ballet Theatre at the Virginia Tech Moss Arts Center, the Cube · Choreographers: Carolin Koepplin, Antonia Dougherty · April 2025
Deixis"Secret Garden" and Tetra Nova dance crossover at the Roanoke Ballet Theatre, Black Box production · Choreographer: Carolin Koepplin · April 2025
Yellow EchoesExhibit, live performance, and community workshops with She Who Has No Master(s), Moving Poets × Novilla Berlin · August 2025
Kingdoms of Lesotho & Eswatini Poetry FestivalsInternational · December 2020
Srijan Poetry Adda / Bengali International Poetry FestivalKolkata, India · 2015
Short Films
Give Me Refuge — Experimental Docufilm, 2019
"In Vietnam, it is November 26th. 7:33 A.M. It is very early morning. Sky is overcast. But very, very pleasant."
Correspondent Medley — Poetry Film, 2019
"The medley became that of pulling out a thread."
Giving Oral — Poetry Film, 2016
"November loves you, but we don't need your money."
Cross Country — Illustrated Poetry, 2014
"Usually, the cemetery was pretty empty like a dusty lake…"
Major Residencies
Kona Arts RetreatHawaii · 2026
Novilla × Moving Poets Berlin with SWHNMBerlin, Germany · 2025
Tomaž Šalamun CentreLjubljana, Slovenia · 2019
About
Sophia Terazawa is a Vietnamese-Japanese poet, novelist, and performance artist whose work moves across testimony and divination, exile, and erotic autonomy.
She is the author of five books: the poetry collections, Winter Phoenix (Deep Vellum, 2021), Anon (Deep Vellum, 2023), and Oracular Maladies (Noemi Press, 2026); and the novels, Tetra Nova (US: Deep Vellum, 2025; UK/Ireland: the87press, 2025) and the forthcoming Curse Him (FC2/University of Alabama Press, 2027), winner of the Doctorow Prize.
Her work has appeared in Harvard Review, Iowa Review, Gulf Coast, Missouri Review, The Brooklyn Rail, and many others. She is a member of She Who Has No Master(s), a collective of women and non-binary artists of Vietnamese descent.
Terazawa currently teaches poetry, fiction, and hybrid forms at Virginia Tech.
Contact
Available for readings, performances, residencies, workshops, and collaborative projects.
