America, Say My Name
Viet Thanh Nguyen writes about his experiences with a Vietnamese name in America in this op-ed for New York Times. LOS ANGELES — What’s your name? Mine is Viet Thanh Nguyen, although I was born in Vietnam as Nguyen Thanh Viet. Whichever way you arrange my name, it is not a typical American name. Growing […]
The MLK Speech We Need Today Is Not the One We Remember Most
Viet Thanh Nguyen writes about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 speech, “Beyond Vietnam”, and its messages for this article on TIME. Most Americans remember Martin Luther King Jr. for his dream of what this country could be, a nation where his children would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by […]
Wesley Yang and the Search for Asian-American Visibility
Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses Wesley Yang’s collection of essays, The Souls of Yellow Folk, for the New York Times Book Review. THE SOULS OF YELLOW FOLK Essays By Wesley Yang 215 pp. W.W. Norton & Company. $24.95. My disappointment with Wesley Yang’s collection of essays, “The Souls of Yellow Folk,” stems from the difference between […]
Could Asian-Americans Turn Orange County Blue?
Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses Asian-American influence in Orange County for the 2018 midterm elections in this op-ed for New York Times. When I was a freshman at the University of California, Riverside, in 1988, I drove a carload of excited fellow Vietnamese students to nearby Orange County. It was only 13 years after the end […]
Author Viet Thanh Nguyen on the struggles of being a refugee in America
David Canfield of Entertainment Weekly offers an exclusive excerpt of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s introduction to The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, to be released on April 10th. For his next project, acclaimed author Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Sympathizer) has taken on the role of editor. Nguyen has edited the upcoming essay collection The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, […]
What I’ve learned from my 4-year-old
Originally published in the New York Times. LOS ANGELES — A bathroom at 4:45 a.m. is quiet. I try to wake at this time, three hours before my 4-year-old son does, so I can write, even in a hotel bathroom. I have not checked email, Twitter or Instagram, and last year I got off Facebook. I […]
The Forgotten Victims of Agent Orange
This New York Times article, co-authored with Richard Hughes, confronts the lack of recognition and reparations for the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange. Phan Thanh Hung Duc, 20, lies immobile and silent, his midsection covered haphazardly by a white shirt with an ornate Cambodian temple design. His mouth is agape and his chest thrusts upward, his […]
Viet Thanh Nguyen a «Letterature» Lasciare casa, per trovarne una
Luca Briasco for Corriere Della Sera sits down with Viet Thanh Nguyen at the International Literature Festival of Rome Il testo inedito che il premio Pulitzer leggerà giovedì 13 luglio alla XVI edizione del Letterature Festival Internazionale di Roma, ideato e diretto da Maria Ida Gaeta. Pubblichiamo il testo che lo scrittore Viet Thanh Nguyen […]
The Great Vietnam War Novel Was Not Written by an American
Viet Thanh Nguyen writes on the many Vietnamese-American works ignored by both the American and Vietnamese mainstream. This article was originally published by the New York Times. In 1967, Le Ly Hayslip, then known as Phung Thi Le Ly, was a teenager living and working in Da Nang. A peasant girl who had survived war […]
In Praise of Doubt and Uselessness
The following article by Viet Thanh Nguyen was originally published by the Los Angeles Times. Almost exactly 20 years ago, I arrived in Los Angeles in the month of June. I had received my doctorate from UC Berkeley in May and had turned 26 in February. That summer, I found a small apartment in Silver […]
Viet Thanh Nguyen on Being a Refugee, an American — and a Human Being
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and Vietnam war refugee reflects on American identity. The following article was originally published in the Financial Times. I am a refugee, an American, and a human being, which is important to proclaim, as there are many who think these identities cannot be reconciled. In March 1975, as Saigon was about […]
A writer’s solitude vs. AWP: Viet Thanh Nguyen on what we share with others
The Los Angeles Times has assembled a panel of distinguished and diverse writers who will regularly contribute to the Books section. The 10 authors who make up the Los Angeles Times Cultural Critics At Large have published works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. They have won dozens of prizes. A majority have deep connections to Southern California, even […]
