Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Voice of a refugee’s pain

Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses The Refugees and his personal experiences in this interview for Strait Times. Pulitzer-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen draws on his early years as a refugee in the US to write his short story collection. Growing up as a Vietnamese refugee in California, author Viet Thanh Nguyen saw a sign in a […]

Viet Nguyen on How Winning the Pulitzer Prize Changed His Life

Valerie Takahama interviews author Viet Thanh Nguyen for Orange Coast Magazine. The morning of April 18 found Viet Thanh Nguyen in Cambridge, Mass., on tour for his first novel, “The Sympathizer.” He was tapping out emails in the quiet of his hotel room when he heard his electronic devices beeping and pinging. Just like that, […]

Fourth & Sycamore Reviews The Sympathizer

Sam Orndorff reviews Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer. Originally published by Fourth & Sycamore.  For a year, I lived in Asia.  I went there to teach ESL with my girlfriend at the time.  We were disillusioned millennials and there seemed no reason to stay in Ohio.  Before leaving, someone had asked us if Koreans lived […]

The Hidden Scars All Refugees Carry

The following oped by Viet Thanh Nguyen was originally published by The New York Times. Many people have characterized my novel, “The Sympathizer,” as an immigrant story, and me as an immigrant. No. My novel is a war story and I am not an immigrant. I am a refugee who, like many others, has never ceased being […]

C-SPAN: Views of Refugees in America Panel

On August 6, 2016, Viet Thanh Nguyen joined panelists to discuss U.S. views on and treatment of refugees. The full recording of the panel can be seen here on C-SPAN. Held at the Skylight Studios of the Annenberg Center for Photography in Los Angeles, photographs of refugee communities in recent decades were shown and the panelists […]

Refugee Memories

‘Refugee Memories and Asian American Critique’ was originally published in positions: asia critique, volume 20, number 20, pages 911-942 (2012).   Shades of Past, Present, and Future When I was young, I often saw Vietnamese soldiers patrolling the community gatherings of Vietnamese refugees. This was not in Viet Nam, but in San Jose, California, where, […]