The initial version of Hyong Yi's 100 Love Notes launched on the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina on November 21, 2015. To honor his wife, Catherine Zanga, on the one-year anniversary of her death from ovarian cancer, Hyong and his two young children gave strangers 100 handwritten love notes, notes that chronicled Hyong and Catherine’s life together, from their first meeting, to dating, marriage, children, and her death, which came far too soon. 

NBC and ABC Nightly News, Good Morning America, and the The Today Show covered the story. So did Buzzfeed, Upworthy, Someecards, Collective Evolution, Yahoo News, Blessings.com, and many other online news sources. Media around the world—the Toronto Star, Sky News (U.K.), Yahoo Canada, Huffington Post UK, Global News Canada, KSN.com, News India, Korean Evening News, UTBC (South Korea), Suff.co.nz, Dailylife (Australia)—picked up the story as well.

Surprised by the magnitude of interest, Yi realized that the notes had greater purpose, and he commissioned 17 artists to illustrate his three-line poems. The resulting art runs the gamut from watercolor, to pen and ink, mosaic, and collage; from traditional paintings to digital compositions

Hyong Yi has spent his career working as a public servant, currently for the City of Charlotte. He earned degrees in political science and public administration, qualifying him to work in government. He loves his community, his family, his children, and most importantly, his late wife, Catherine.

Originally from Chicago, Avery Caswell holds a BFA and MFA in design, and an MFA in creative writing and publication arts. She studied writing at Iowa Writers’ Workshop and illustration at Maryland Institute College of Art. Passionate about combining words and images, she was the lead writer and book designer for LUCK, A Collection of Facts, Fiction, Incantations & Verse. Her collages were featured in Far From the Centers of Ambition, and she is the author of Motherload, stories.