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.”
Zeteo | Trump’s Vision of Perpetual Imperial War
Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnamese-American novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen reflects on how the war in Iran shows, yet again, that the U.S. has learned the wrong lessons

University of California, Berkeley | Address to the Class of 2026
Viet gave the commencement address for the UC Berkeley English Department on May 20, 2026. No photos or video were taken, but here’s a photo

Viet edits the latest edition of The Best American Short Stories
A collection of the year’s best short stories, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestseller Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer. The Best American

New Orleans Book Festival 2026 | Author Discussion on Storytelling and National Identity
As the United States marked its 250th anniversary, authors Stacey Abrams, Eddie Glaude Jr., and Viet Thanh Nguyen examined American storytelling and national identity. This

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
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.
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ÁCCENTED
ÁCCENTED is a talk show and podcast that fosters engaging and culturally insightful conversations within the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diaspora.