In Trump’s vision of a white America, immigrants should be grateful and servile
Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses the meaning and effects of Trump’s recent comments about immigrants in this op-ed for The Washington Post. When Donald Trump first proclaimed “Make America Great Again,” many white Americans focused on the slogan’s explicit appeal. Why wouldn’t we want America to be great again? But many of us who do not […]
VIET THANH NGUYEN: HOW NOT TO BORE YOUR AUDIENCE AT A READING
Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses ways to engage the audience during literary readings in an op-ed for the Literary Hub. CHANNEL OBAMA. PERFORM. DRINK IF YOU MUST. Am I the only one who finds literary readings boring? I usually avoided them. Then I had to go on book tour and tried not to bore people. I […]
College admissions are corrupt because universities are. Here’s how to fix them.
Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses the college admissions scandal and solutions for the future in this op-ed for The Washington Post. The scandal around rich people buying college admissions for their underqualified children is disgusting and disheartening for everyone, but especially for those of us who teach and study at universities. My own University of Southern […]
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 […]
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 […]
Asian-Americans Need More Movies, Even Mediocre Ones
Viet Thanh Nguyen writes an Op-Ed for New York Times about narrative plenitude and Asian-American representation in Hollywood. If you are Asian-American, you have most likely heard of a movie called “Crazy Rich Asians,” based on the popular novel of the same title by Kevin Kwan. If you are not Asian-American, maybe you are wondering […]
Trump Is a Great Storyteller. We Need to Be Better.
Viet published an op-ed in the New York Times about storytelling in the age of Trump. Here is the unedited, 1400-word version. The link to the 900-word published version comes at the end. My son is three years old. Every morning and evening I read to him. I love the joy he takes in learning […]
