Bao-Long Chu

Long oversees our strategy to support and grow Houston’s arts, culture, and parks ecosystem. He collaborates with artists and community leaders toward a shared vision of a vibrant city with abundant opportunities to create and connect. The power of art to share and connect human stories inspires his work.

He is a storyteller. Originally from Vietnam, his passion for writing led him to the MFA creative writing program at University of Houston. He has written and presented extensively on writing pedagogy, the connection between art and the refugee experience, and nonprofit programming. During his role as the associate director of the literary-education nonprofit Writers in the Schools, he developed his extensive background in literacy, arts, and community engagement.

Long’s poems and essays have been published in several anthologies, including The New Anthology of American Poetry: Postmodernisms 1950-Present and From Both Sides Now: The Poetry of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath. His libretto for the opera Bound, composed by Huang Ruo, premiered in Houston in 2014, New York in 2019, and Seattle in 2023.

Long holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and psychology from Houston Baptist University and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.