To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other
The Cleaving
Simone
From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen and illustrator Minnie Phan comes an unforgettable story of a Vietnamese American girl whose life is transformed by a wildfire.
Kirkus Reviews says “Stunning…. a powerful, multilayered depiction of an increasingly common situation.”
A Man of Two Faces
With insight, humor, formal invention, and lyricism, in A Man of Two Faces Viet Thanh Nguyen rewinds the film of his own life in a highly original, blistering, and unconventional memoir.
He expands the genre of personal memoir by acknowledging larger stories of refugeehood, colonization, and ideas about Vietnam and America.
The Committed
Chicken of the Sea
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives
The Refugees
The Refugees is a collection of perfectly formed stories written over a period of twenty years, exploring questions of immigration, identity, love, and family.
Kirkus Reviews says “many of the stories might have been written by a modern Flaubert, if that master had spent time in San Jose or Ho Chi Minh City.”
Speaking Out of Place | Breaking ICE: Community Defense Against State Terror and MAGA Fascism. A Conversation with Sonali Kolhatkar and Viet Thanh Nguyen
Listen to the full interview Today I am excited to talk with Sonali Kolhatkar and Viet Thanh Nguyen about a new book edited by Sonali
Institute of American Indian Arts Chapter House Journal | An Interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of “To Save and To Destroy.”
by Rey M. Rodríguez Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist, essayist, scholar, and critic Viet Thanh Nguyen has spent much of his career examining the stories nations tell
Author Dialogues | Is the need to “humanize” a person rooted in racism? Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses…
In this wide-ranging conversation, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Thi Bui explore the role of writers and artists in confronting injustice, challenging dehumanization, and making sense
The Atlas | The Historical Record with Viet Thanh Nguyen
If history is written by the victors, what artefacts of the world today have already won their own B-side on the record? The Atlas asks
Zeteo | The Burning Towers Foreshadowed a Burning World – Viet Thanh Nguyen on the 25 Years After 9/11
On this anniversary, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author describes how the horrific Sept. 11 attacks exposed the simultaneous power and vulnerability of the American empire and
Viet’s Senior Thesis on Graham Greene’s The Quiet American
In his junior year at UC Berkeley, Viet managed to get into Professor David Lloyd’s English senior thesis class on colonialism and postcolonialism. He wrote
Viet’s Books
About Viet Thanh Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and numerous other awards. His most recent publication is his memoir, A Man of Two Faces. His other books are the sequel to The Sympathizer, The Committed; a short story collection, The Refugees; Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction); and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. He has also published Chicken of the Sea, a children’s book written in collaboration with his son, Ellison. He is a University Professor, the Aerol Arnold Chair of English, and a Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, he is also the editor of The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives.
Upcoming Events
Symphony Space | Selected Shorts: The Best American Short Stories 2026 with Viet Thanh Nguyen
ÁCCENTED
ÁCCENTED is a talk show and podcast that fosters engaging and culturally insightful conversations within the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diaspora.