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.”
Intersectionality Matters! | The Story of Us 2026, Part 1
This episode is an act of recovery, uplifting the artistic careers that McCarthyism upended through an immersive blend of conversation and artivism performances. Host Kimberlé

Stars and Stars with Isa | Aquarius Viet Thanh Nguyen on Embracing Mystery
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor Viet Thanh Nguyen is learning to embrace vulnerability these days. Fatherhood in particular has softened his Aquarius sun spirit. In

Saigoneer | Viet Thanh Nguyen’s New Essay Collection Is Both Theoretically Sharp and Intimately Tender
Last year, acclaimed Vietnamese American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen published To Save and to Destroy: Writing As Other, a collection of six essays adapted from

PASTE Magazine | SongWriter season 7 continues with Việt Thanh Nguyễn and Thao Nguyễn
By Ben Arthur Photos by Eric Einwiller & BeBe Jacobs SongWriter is a podcast that turns stories into songs, featuring Questlove, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Joyce

Voices for Gaza | Speaker Highlights
VOICES FOR GAZA was a tremendously moving event that brought together Palestinian writers and activists and their allies to speak about Gaza, Palestine, and genocide.

Le Sympathisant |
The French really love bandes dessinées (comics). Here is the adaptation of The Sympathizer as Le Sympathisant, written by Antoine Ozanam, illustrated by Jai Baek,
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
ÁCCENTED | Letters & Lullabies: Diasporic Filipina Poets
ÁCCENTED
ÁCCENTED is a talk show and podcast that fosters engaging and culturally insightful conversations within the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diaspora.
