Interviews

Belonging Is a Complicated Thing: An Interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen

JENNIFER ACKER speaks with VIET THANH NGUYEN Viet Thanh Nguyen visited Amherst College in February 2022 in the joint roles of Presidential Scholar and LitFest headliner. In his live conversation with The Common’s editor-in-chief Jennifer Acker, he deployed humor and refreshing honesty to discuss his path to publishing his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer and its best-selling sequel The Committed. The… (read more)


Viet Thanh, un autor marcado por la guerra (Viet Thanh, an author marked by war)

Presentó su novela “El idealista” en el Hay Festival Querétaro 2022 El narrador vietnamita estadounidense Viet Thanh Nguyen presentó su novela “El idealista”, secuela de “El…(read more)

Vanity Fair | These Pulitzer Prize Winners are Getting Fresh Follow-Ups (But Don’t Say Sequels)

Elizabeth Strout, Jennifer Egan, and other best-selling authors are revisiting beloved characters from their prize-winning novels for Vanity Fair. After Andrew Sean Greer won the Pulitzer Prize for Less in…(read more)

Nothing is Resolved | Tricycle

Viet Thanh Nguyen was only four when his parents fled Vietnam for America in 1975, and he has few memories of the war. But…(read more)

Library of America | “She showed the way” — Viet Thanh Nguyen on Maxine Hong Kingston

Released this spring by Library of America, Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, Other Writings brings together Maxine Hong Kingston’s two classic,…(read more)

Free Library of Philadelphia | Maxine Hong Kingston in Conversation with Thanh Nguyen | The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, Other Writings

Beginning with her stunning 1976 memoir, “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Hong Kingston has forged a profound, richly imagined, and genre-defying narrative of the American…(read more)

Harvard Kennedy School: Asian American Policy Review | “Representation, Redistribution and Revolution: A Conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen”

Is the principle of AAPI self-recognition and the demand for recognition? Or is the principle for AAPI an ever-evolving struggle for justice? These are…(read more)

PBS-Serica | Exploring Hate: “be/longing: Asian Americans Now,” [Episode 1: Viet Thanh Nguyen]

What does it mean to belong?   During the pandemic, misinformation about the coronavirus contributed to an alarming spike in racial violence against Asian Americans.…(read more)

Fort Indiantown Gap | Former Vietnamese Refugee Returns to Fort Indiantown Gap

Brad Rhen writes about Viet Thanh Nguyen’s experiences as a refugee who arrived at Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania in the summer of 1975…(read more)

Library of America | Maxine Hong Kingston & Viet Thanh Nguyen

Beginning with her stunning 1976 memoir, “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Hong Kingston has forged a profound, richly imagined, and genre-defying narrative of the American…(read more)

American Writer’s Museum | Maxine Hong Kingston & Viet Thanh Nguyen

Maxine Hong Kingston and Viet Thanh Nguyen discuss the new collection of Kingston’s work from the Library of America, edited by Nguyen. This program…(read more)

PBS News Hour | Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Brief but Spectacular Take on Writing and Memory

As long as he can remember, author Viet Thanh Nguyen has been interested in how stories about his home country of Vietnam are told…(read more)

The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen | Podcast with Viet Thanh Nguyen

Kenneth Nguyen is in conversation with Pulitzer Prize Winner and Novelist to discuss what it means to be Vietnamese with The Vietnamese. Viet Nguyen:Hi.…(read more)

Poured Over | Viet Thanh Nguyen on THE COMMITTED

“…Cynical as he is of the world that he encounters, he’s also pretty cynical and critical of himself. And that manifests itself in that…(read more)

NPR Throughline | All Wars Are Fought Twice

“All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory,” writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. This…(read more)

NPR | Refugees From Other Wars See Themselves in Fleeing Ukrainians

Mary Louise Kelly talks with people about the experience of being a refugee, how fleeing their home country has affected their life and what…(read more)