On Sunday, September 22, 2024, we celebrated the release of “Simone,” an exciting new picture book with words by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen and art by illustrator Minnie Phan. “Simone” is an unforgettable story of a Vietnamese American girl whose life is transformed by a wildfire.
About the Speakers
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s debut novel, The Sympathizer, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, is a New York Times bestseller and is now an HBO TV series directed by Park Chan-wook. He is the editor of The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives and the Library of America volume for Maxine Hong Kingston and he co-authored Chicken of the Sea, a children’s book, with his then six-year-old son, Ellison. His most recent books are The Committed, the sequel to The Sympathizer, and his second children’s book, Simone, illustrated by Minnie Phan, an unforgettable story of a Vietnamese American girl whose life is transformed by a wildfire.
Minnie Pham
Transcript
Minnie Phan:
Thank you to OACC for this opportunity, and for hosting my very first solo exhibition here at the museum in 2016. The body of work that I created at the cultural center became the body of work my agent caught eye of, and she reached out and wanted to represent me for picture books.
So, you never know where you’re going to go with little connections, so, thank you. And Viet, they want to hear from you. Let’s go.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Awesome. Well, it’s such a pleasure to be back here in the Bay Area. I grew up in San Jose, and I went to school at UC Berkeley, the greatest university in the world, I think. And it’s always a pleasure to be here with Minnie.
The idea for Simone actually came from Minnie, and Minnie, actually, worked on that book, for how long?
Minnie Phan:
Well, about four years.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Four years. Can you even imagine, four years, how long that is? Incredible. Do you know how long it took me to write my book? Do you know how long it took me to write this book? Take a guess.
Audience:
A month.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
A month? Okay. One more guess.
Audience:
I don’t know.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Four days. Four years and four days. I think I got the better end of the deal. So, we’re going to be talking about Simone today. We’ll talk a lot more about it. We want to hear from all of you, especially the slightly smaller people up in the front.
But we thought we might want to take a vote first to see if any of you might want to hear about the first children’s book that I wrote called Chicken Of The Sea.
Do you know what the Chicken Of The Sea is about? Anybody? Anybody in one of the smaller folks? Anybody remember what Chicken Of The Sea is about? It’s about… Malia…
Audience:
About chickens that become pirates.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
That is absolutely right. Chickens that become pirates. Can you imagine? Chickens have become pirates. Have you ever heard of such a thing? I never have. Do you know who came up with the idea for chickens that become pirates? Was it an old fuddy-duddy person like me? No, we’re not capable of thinking that way. We’re not capable. It was my five-year-old son, Ellison. How old are you?
Audience:
I’m seven.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Seven. So, you’re even older than Ellison. He was five when he came up with that story. Does anybody want to hear Chicken of the Sea?
Audience:
Yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Yeah. All right. Okay. So, this won’t take long, okay? But there’s a lot of fun. All right? It’s, actually, not just chickens who become pirates, it’s bored chickens who become pirates.
You, maybe, you’ve eaten chicken, but have you ever lived on a chicken farm? We have, because we’re chickens. Wake up, ruffle the feathers. Peck, peck, peck. Lay an egg. Peck, peck, peck. Go to sleep. We’re bored. It’s enough to drive a chicken cuckoo.
But then, one dawn, cuckoo-doo-doo-doo, the pettiless came. “I need volunteers for my crew. Lost a few as pirates do. Chickens, are you willing or are you chicken?” To be or not to be chicken? That is the question.
So, we became chicken of the sea. Even if we can’t swim. Goodbye, farm. Farewell, farmer. Hello, big blue sea. Now, we pirates must do what pirates do, steal treasure. And what is the greatest treasure in the world? A mountain of chicken feed. No. A nest of duck feathers. No. A beautiful sunny day. No, no, no. The greatest treasure in the world is…
Audience:
Gold.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Gold. And you know who has a mighty trove of gold? The dog knights. You may know what gold is, but we don’t because we’re…
Audience:
Chicken.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
… chicken. So, over the seven seas, we sailed, flying the black flag through clear days and stormy ones.
You may not know what sea sickness is, but we do, because we’re…
Audience:
Chicken.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Chickens. Absolutely. All right. Then, we saw it through the fog, the castle of the dog knights. Now, we wait for darkness.
At nightfall, armed to the beak with heavy metal, we scaled the walls of the castle while the dog knights slept. Cook-a-doodle-doo. You old rooster, I’ll put you in a stew before I’m through with you. As for the rest of you, show them no mercy.
The clash of swords and sabers, the thunder of shot and shell, the smell of fear and…
Audience:
I don’t know.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I don’t know. That’s a very good answer. The flying of fur and feathers, the barking and the buck, buck, buck, bucking. Oh, the terror. The terror. And then, through the smoke, we saw the terrier. The king of the dog knights. And under his paws, our captain. Mercy. Mercy. Chickens, what say you?
Drama. A suspense. What are they going to say? Mercy, we said. Mercy. It was then that the king’s heart grew three sizes, maybe, four.
And so, he threw a big party for his dog knights and the pirates and even the captain, a feast with everything, except…
Audience:
Chickens.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Chickens. You’re terrible, pirates. That’s because we’re…
Audience:
Chickens.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Chickens. And that is a great thing.
All right, that was Chicken of the Sea. Sometimes, people ask, what are the origins of Chicken of the Sea? What the origins are is that, Ellison, my son was five years old. He loves comic books and drawing and superheroes, and so, at five years of age, he decided to draw and write his own comic book called Chicken of the Sea.
That story you just heard, all his idea, because I am not able to imagine that kind of a story. I put the comic book on something that… Your parents, probably, spend too much time on Facebook, and then, someone I didn’t even know reached out and said, “Can we turn this into a real book?” And I said, “Can I make money off my son?” And that’s how we got Chicken of the Sea in that form. Okay.
Minnie Phan:
Woo.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Okay. And so, now, we get to the second book that I wrote, and it was all because of Minnie.
Minnie Phan:
Well, actually, Viet, before we go into our second book, let’s get into how we became artists and writers…
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
We became artists.
Minnie Phan:
… and creative people. It was not incredible. Let’s give a round of applause for Chicken of the Sea.
Audience:
Yay.
Minnie Phan:
Yes. And while we’re talking and presenting our slide, we welcome all questions and engagement and anything that you want to know. In this moment, you’ve got us right in front of you. We’re happy to have a conversation with everyone.
So, Viet is a writer and I’m an illustrator, and we’re both storytellers, but we were once kids just like you. Just like you, we were once kids. So, Viet, what was your relationship to reading as a kid?
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
As you can tell, I read too much. That’s me. I’m about in the sixth grade, about 11 years of age. But I started wearing glasses when I was in the second grade.
Anybody here in the second grade? Anybody in second grade? Second grade? How old are you?
Audience:
Seven.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Seven. Yeah. So, I started wearing glasses when I was seven years old. That’s because I just read too much.
Minnie Phan:
What was your favorite book at the time, Viet?
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I think it was probably the Tintin comic book series. Yeah. I think people still read that.
Minnie Phan:
And I, also, heard rumors that you wrote your very first story when you were a little kid.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I was eight years old when I wrote and drew my first book in the third grade. I will forever be grateful to my third grade teacher for letting the class do that. It was called Lester, the Cat. Do you want to hear about it?
Minnie Phan:
Yes, of course.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Lester was an urban cat, stricken with ennui. Bored with city life, he fled to the countryside. There, he fell in love with a country cat. That was Lester, the Cat.
Minnie Phan:
Wow. Amazing. But who here big or small, who here has a hard time with reading? Like isn’t really the best reader. And it’s okay to raise your hand. I was not the best reader.
But you know what I really liked to do, was drawing and painting and creating stories and characters in my brain. I used to think, oh, I’m not a good reader, so I don’t get to be in the book world, or books. They don’t get me because I don’t get them. But turns out you, can tell stories with pictures, too, and you can use drawing and painting as a way to connect with other people.
And so, Viet and I, we use our imagination to understand, influence and change the world around us. These are some of Viet’s big kid books. The one… To Save and Destroy is coming out next year, his latest book. And Viet, anything you want to say about your books?
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
They’re not appropriate for you. I’ll also say, it was like, they’re bad for you. Do you hear that?
Minnie Phan:
Yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
They’re bad for you.
Minnie Phan:
Oh, no.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Never pick up one of my adult books. Never, never, never, never, never. You hear me? Never.
Minnie Phan:
I think-
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Which means you should, sometimes.
Minnie Phan:
This is reverse psychology happening. He’s getting them started early. And we, also, make books for kids, and you just heard the fabulous Chicken of the Sea. And I also am the illustrator for The Yellow Áo Dài.
And Viet, why do you make books for kids as well next to all of your crazy dramatic adult books?
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I just did it by accident. It was because I had kids, Ellison, and I learned so much from having children, that they taught me so much about creativity and playing, and not following any rules. That’s great. Right?
Because again, I never could have thought up a story about bored chickens who run off to become pirates. So, all credit to my son.
Minnie Phan:
That’s right. And for me, I got into making picture books and comics and drawing, especially for kids and young adults, because I felt so powerless when I was a little kid. I went to five elementary schools, I moved to seven different houses. Everything was always changing. But something that never changed was having a piece of paper and a pencil. I could draw anywhere. I could make any world I wanted on my paper.
And so, I make the work for you so that you know you can always pick up a pencil and write a story, draw a picture and play in your world. And in our world, so Viet, this is where you work. Where do you work?
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
This is in the basement, and right on the other side of the wall is the washing machine and dryer. Yeah, it’s really incredible.
And my room doesn’t actually look this way. It actually looks like really messy, but I cleaned it up just like your parents tell you to clean up your room, sometimes, right?
Minnie Phan:
Yeah. And Viet always needs a glass of soda, just in case.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Yeah, I love soda. You can see it right there.
Minnie Phan:
And this is where I work. I live and work in Oakland, and I have a home studio, and I have a section for doing my digital art and my traditional work. And I really love to make work both for kids and adults, and together with an adult writer, I worked with Viet to create Simone.
Simone came out this year. As Viet mentioned, it took two… Let’s say four days for him to write and four years for me to draw. And what is Simone about? It’s about the power of art and creativity, and it’s about the helpers who show up when scary things happen.
And it’s, also, a way for grownups and kids to talk about scary things. These are New York Times headlines from this past week, just this week, about wildfires, about floods, things happening all over the globe.
So, these are big scary topics, but we wanted our book to be, also, about you, you, you, and how you can be a helper. So, we’ve got some time. Are y’all ready to read Simone?
Audience:
Woo.
Minnie Phan:
Okay. Woo-hoo. All right. So, Viet did all of Chicken od the Sea, so I’m going to do all of Simone. Ready? Let’s go.
Simone. Ka, ka, I was dreaming of the ocean. I heard its roar. The waves caught me, carried me away. But I wasn’t scared. Wake up, baby. Wake up. What’s wrong, ma? We have to go, Simone. Get what’s important. Fire. Evacuate now.
I grab my go-bag, food, band-aids, flashlights, clothes. But what about all the things I love? Let’s go, Simone. I can’t decide. Hey, isn’t this your favorite toy? Bring some books. We’ve got to go, baby.
I loved all my books, but I couldn’t take them all. Oh, I’ll be back for you. I’d never seen anything like this before. It was like a dream. Meow, honk, beep, brrr… There’s a lot going on here, huh? And it was real life. What CDC are? California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, they’re prisoners, but they’re, also, firefighters. They did bad things? Maybe. Maybe. But now, they’re doing good things.
I was terrified. I was going away from the fire. The firefighters were going right into the fire. That’s a scary thought, huh? Everything will be okay, baby. I know. I’ve been through this before. Really? With a fire? With water. Before I came here.
The roar of the plane startled me. I’d never seen one fly so low. Ma was born in Vietnam. She came here on a plane. I’d never been there. She always said it was a beautiful country. Ma promises she’ll take me one day. Simone, I’ll never forget the flood. Simone, I was only a little girl then your age. All I could take were my crayons. They were my most precious things.
Nước, nước everywhere. Ma is the only Vietnamese word I know. What’s nước? Water. It means water. But it also means country. Mm, a country of water? The shelter was at the high school gym. I’d never been there before. It was so big, and there were so many people and pets and other kids.
What happened to the house, to your family? The flood receded. We went back. We cleaned up. Did anyone die? Woo. No, darling. We all lived. I could see how scared everyone was. The adults were louder than the kids. Climate catastrophe, global warming. We couldn’t find the cat.
I thought about ma when she was little and all that water. I remembered something ma says, sometimes. You don’t fight fire with fire. You fight fire with… what do you fight fire with?
Audience:
Water.
Minnie Phan:
That’s right. I didn’t have any water, but I had my pens and pencils. I started to draw. Drawing always made me feel better.
Firefighters were yellow. They were orange, too. Anyone can be a firefighter. Girls, too. Make sure you draw girl firefighters, and black firefighters and brown firefighters and Asian firefighters just like me. Just like us. Come on, draw with me.
Are the firefighters going to save us? I was scared, but he was more scared. I had to be the big girl. Sure, they will. Draw me your house. Let’s see how beautiful it is. We stayed at the gym for a few days, and we made new friends. We even put up our drawings on the walls.
And look, if you look in this drawing, I think someone’s missing a cat. Then, we got to go home. Some people weren’t lucky. Some people were, like that cat. We were lucky. But what about next time? Who would save us?
Ding-dong. Hello. Oh, it’s so good to see you again. That’s when I knew. It’s up to us. We are the firefighters. The end.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Wow. That was great, Minnie. You did so much better than I could possibly do. What was the most fun part for you in drawing this and illustrating this book?
Minnie Phan:
The most fun part was that I had pitched this idea. It was a wordless storyboard to my publisher. And they said, “We love this, but we want to see words”. And I said, I know someone who’s good with words.
So, I pitched it to Viet. And Viet, I thought when I called you, I bombed the call and I thought you’d never want to work with me ever again. And 10 minutes after the call, he sent an email, and he said, “Let’s do it”.
And that moment, Viet gave me so much creative freedom. The publisher just trusted me, trusted my creativity, trusted my vision. So, I got to play with the art, with the storytelling, with the color in a way I’d never been able to in my previous books, or work. So, that was my favorite part, was the freedom that I was given in this book.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Hey, you know what? I’m sure you all love playing with each other, and the part what Minnie was talking about, making this book was, the two of us playing with each other, with me doing the words and Minnie doing the pictures, but both of us playing with the ideas. And we’d love to play with you a little bit today. Right?
Minnie Phan:
Sure.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Yeah.
Minnie Phan:
Yes.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
You know what, the reality of it is, I cannot draw anything, but Minnie is really good.
So, she is going to draw for you. Are we going to do the greatest ultimate firefighter? Is that the plan?
Minnie Phan:
We could do a firefighters. We could also do chicken pirates.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Oh.
Minnie Phan:
We had two books today.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Yeah.
Minnie Phan:
Let’s do a vote. Let’s do a vote. Who wants to draw chicken pirates? I want to hear some noise. I want some clapping. Some whoo.
Audience:
Woo.
Yahoo.
Minnie Phan:
All right.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
And who wants to draw the greatest ultimate firefighter? Make some noise.
Audience:
Woo.
Minnie Phan:
Okay. Okay. I think we’ve got chicken pirates as the winner.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
You think chicken pirates?
Minnie Phan:
Yes.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Okay. Chicken pirates as the winner. Okay. So, what’s going to happen is this. You, anybody, are going to tell us what you think should go into the chicken pirate, and Minnie is going to do her magic and turn that into a picture.
So, Mickey, what should be in the this chicken pirate?
Mickey:
A chicken firefighter?
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
You want a chicken firefighting pirate?
Minnie Phan:
Oh.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I think that’s great, a chicken firefighter… a chicken firefighter, or a chicken firefighter pirate?
Mickey:
Chicken firefighter pirate.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Okay, that’s awesome. Chicken firefighter pirate. We got to start here. Anybody, what should that chicken firefighter pirate look like? Any ideas?
Okay, here we go.
Audience:
It would look like a rooster.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
It should look like a rooster. That’s very good. Not all chickens are the same. A rooster. Awesome. What makes the chicken a rooster? What do you think?
Audience:
It is black.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
It’s a black rooster. Awesome. Anybody else, what should this chicken firefighting rooster pirate look like?
Audience:
It should have stripes on it.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Oh, it should have… There are many different kinds of stripes. What kind of stripes?
Audience:
Squiggly stripes.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Squiggly stripes. What color are the squiggly stripes?
Audience:
Um…
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Oh, this is so hard. See what we have to do? Like Minnie and I, we have to make all these hard decisions. What colors should these squiggly stripes be?
Audience:
White.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
White squiggly stripes. Great. Anybody else, what else should this chicken rooster firefighting pirate with the squiggly white stripes look like?
Audience:
It should be holding a hose.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
A hose. Perfect. I love that idea. Didn’t you have your hand raised? Oh, yes. Good. Great. What else should the chicken firefighting pirate look like? Okay. The chicken firefighter pirate should be raising their hand, right?
Audience:
Yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I didn’t know chickens had hands. I thought that was a trick question. Anything else? What else should the chicken firefighting pirate look like?
Audience:
It should pose to have a ladder to climb.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
That is brilliant. Of course, chickens can’t fly. They need a ladder to get up there. That’s so great.
Audience:
They should save somebody.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Oh, they should save somebody. Good. Great. Who should the chicken firefighting rooster pirates save?
Audience:
A baby.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
A baby.
Minnie Phan:
A baby.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Like a human baby, or some other kind of baby.
Audience:
A human baby.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
A human baby. I love that idea. Yes, sir.
Audience:
Yeah. Purple.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
You want the chicken firefighting rooster pirate to be purple? Okay. I think Minnie can do that. Minnie can do anything.
How about this part, this group over here? Anybody have an idea about what the chicken firefighting rooster pirate whose purple with the white squiggly stripes should look like?
Audience:
I don’t know.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
No. You don’t know. Anybody? Any ideas? Let your imaginations run wild. You know, we did this yesterday, and I believe somebody said that they should have… wasn’t the chicken saying poo-poo? Yeah. I thought it was brilliant.
Minnie Phan:
Oh, yeah, it was saying poo-poo yellow and pooping bombs.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Yeah, it was pooping egg bombs. That was brilliant.
Minnie Phan:
What kind of shoes should this rooster have? Air Jordans, barefoot? Bare claw, I mean.
Audience:
Air Jordans.
Minnie Phan:
Okay.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Air Jordans. Okay. Any more ideas?
Audience:
Add a fire.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Yeah, they have to be fighting a fire, right? They’re rescuing the human baby from a fire. Oh, right. Okay. Callan.
Audience:
They should be wearing a shirt.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
They should be jumping away from sharks?
Audience:
Wearing a shirt.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
They should be wearing a shirt? Oh, what should be on the shirt? What kind of shirt?
Audience:
Polka dotted.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Polka dotted shirt. I love it. Yeah.
Audience:
It should have a helmet.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Like a firefighter’s helmet or astronaut’s helmet?
Audience:
A firefighter’s helmet.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
I think that’s great. Yeah. I think Minnie has already anticipated that.
Minnie Phan:
Yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
She’s working really, really hard.
Minnie Phan:
That’s right.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Yeah. Anybody else, any other ideas?
Minnie Phan:
We’re going to take one more idea.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
One more idea. One… Oh, right. This idea is from yesterday. The chicken only has one leg, because it’s not just a firefighting chicken, it’s a pirate chicken. And as we all know, pirates only have one leg.
Minnie Phan:
Yes. That’s right.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Right? And the other leg is a peg leg. Okay, we have two last ideas, because we have two… Okay, three last ideas. Here we go.
Audience:
It should have pants on.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
It should have pants on.
Minnie Phan:
Oh.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Why didn’t I think of… Why didn’t you put pants on the chicken? That’s so embarrassing. Okay.
Audience:
[inaudible 00:30:45] a shirt. A shirt.
A shirt. What kind of shirt. A firefighter…
PAW Patrol? PAW Patrol?
I don’t know.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
PAW Patrol. I heard PAW Patrol.
Audience:
Yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Everybody loves PAW Patrol. PAW Patrol pants, right?
Minnie Phan:
Oh, that’s good. [inaudible 00:31:04]Patrol.
Audience:
It needs a fire truck.
Minnie Phan:
Oh.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
It needs a fire truck.
Minnie Phan:
Fire truck.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Why didn’t we think of that?
Minnie Phan:
I know.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Of course, it needs a fire truck.
Minnie Phan:
Yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
It needs a ladder. It needs a fire truck. It needs pants.
Minnie Phan:
That’s right.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Okay, this is the last idea.
Minnie Phan:
Last… the last-
Audience:
A water stream for the hose.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Water stream for the hose.
Minnie Phan:
Water stream. Yes. Yes, yes. Okay, so, fantastic. This here is our incredible chicken pirate firefighter, which is so cool. Thank you, everyone, for making this incredible superhero with me.
And we have 15 minutes left of this presentation before we go into a signing at 2:00 PM. I am going to be off mic and hanging out with the kids, while grown-ups in the room, do you have any questions for Viet or I, about being an artist, a writer, big kid books, picture books, anything at all? This is a chance for the big kids in the room to speak their truth now.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
You mean the little kids can’t ask questions?
Minnie Phan:
Well, they can. Sure, yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Oh, yeah, you can ask questions, too.
Minnie Phan:
The kids can always ask questions.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Yeah. Anybody can ask questions.
Minnie Phan:
Always. Anyone can ask questions. Yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
About just about anything. Just about anything. I think the gentleman has a question. Oh, yeah. Okay.
Audience:
Do you feel famous yet?
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Do I feel famous yet? That depends on who you ask. I think-
Audience:
Does your son know?
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
My son does know, in fact. Yes. Yeah. It feels pretty good. Any other questions? Okay.
Audience:
Was your family supportive of your career path?
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Was my family supportive of my career path? Wow. What that means is, did mom and dad approve of me becoming a writer? Absolutely, not. Because, because… Maybe, you all don’t know this, but you’re not supposed to become writers and artists. That’s what the big, boring parents tell you. You should become doctors, lawyers, engineers, pharmacists, nurses. Wait, am I missing anything? Architects.
Minnie Phan:
Presidents.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
All incredible occupations. These are all good occupations. However, if you, in your heart of hearts, want to become a writer, an artist, a clown, don’t let anybody stop you in your ambitions and your dreams. Okay? Yeah.
So, it all worked out in the end. They had no idea I wanted to become a writer. I was eight years old when I decided that I would become a writer. And I just kept it a big secret for a very, very long time.
Did your parents want you to become an artist?
Minnie Phan:
Oh, I broke their heart the moment I became an artist.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Oh, wow.
Minnie Phan:
Oh, for sure.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
You broke your parents hearts?
Minnie Phan:
Shattered it.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Wow.
Minnie Phan:
I stepped on it even.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
You stepped on it?
Minnie Phan:
Yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
And did you grind it with your heels?
Minnie Phan:
You betcha.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Are your parents hurt?
Minnie Phan:
That’s why I’m wearing the heels.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
Okay. Okay. We’re not telling you you should do that to your parents’ hearts, but still…
Minnie Phan:
Yeah.
Viet Thanh Nguyen:
… pursue your dreams.
Minnie Phan:
Hey, Viet, we had a question from a little kid here a second ago. Do you remember your question, Wyatt?
Audience:
Yeah. So, what stories do you make?
Minnie Phan:
What stories do we make? The stories that I make, I’m working on stories about what it means to be… What it means to be a daughter, a mother, a sister. I’m making a story about a family.
I can’t be giving you my secrets now. It’s all in production. But my stories are, usually, about real life and people and connection
