_(cropped).jpg)
Recent from talks
Ocean Vuong
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong (born Vương Quốc Vinh, Vietnamese: [vɨəŋ˧ kuək˧˥ viɲ˧]; born 1988) is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. His debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published in 2019. He received a MacArthur Grant that same year. He is the recipient of the 2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize.
Ocean Vuong was born Vương Quốc Vinh in 1988 in Hồ Chí Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) in Vietnam, to a multiracial mother. His maternal grandmother grew up in rural Vietnam. At that time his maternal grandfather, a farm boy from Michigan, was serving in the United States Navy, during the Vietnam War. He met and fell in love with Vuong's grandmother, whom Vuong has described as "an illiterate girl from the rice paddies."
Vuong's grandparents married and had three daughters, one of whom was Vuong's mother. His grandfather had gone back to visit family in the U.S., and was unable to return when Saigon fell to communist forces. Fearing for their safety, his grandmother made the difficult decision to place his mother and her sisters in separate orphanages. With the rising dangers associated with being seen as a collaborator, she believed splitting them up would give them the best chance for survival. "It was a humanitarian crisis, and there was more chance of them surviving like that," he explains. His grandmother also worried they might be taken out of Vietnam.
As daughters of a US serviceman, they would have qualified for Operation Babylift, a program that evacuated children to the United States for adoption. If kept together, they might have also been viewed as a family unit, making them a target for dissidents seeking to leave the country. By separating them, she hoped to protect them from these risks and increase their chances of survival.
By the time the family was reunited, his mother had already reached adulthood. At 18, she had given birth to Ocean and was working in a Saigon salon, washing men's hair to make ends meet. However, her mixed-race heritage caught the attention of a policeman, who recognized that, under Vietnamese law, she was working illegally due to her background. This discovery put the family at significant risk, forcing them to flee Vietnam for safety. The family was evacuated to a refugee camp in the Philippines, where they waited as the Salvation Army processed their resettlement claim. Two-year-old Vuong and his family eventually gained asylum and migrated to the United States. They settled in Hartford, Connecticut, sharing a one-bedroom apartment with seven relatives. His father abandoned the family one day and never returned.[citation needed]
Vuong was the first in his family to achieve proficiency in reading and writing, learning to read at the age of eleven. He suspected dyslexia ran in his family. At 15 years old, Vuong worked on a tobacco farm illegally and would later describe his experiences on the farm in On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. He was reunited with his maternal grandfather later in life.
Vuong attended Glastonbury High School in Glastonbury, Connecticut, a school known for academic excellence. "I didn't know how to make use of it," Vuong has stated, noting that his grade point average at one point was 1.7.
While in high school, Vuong told fellow Glastonbury graduate Kat Chow, he "understood he had to leave Connecticut." After spending some time studying at Manchester Community College, he transferred to Pace University in New York City to study marketing. His time there lasted only a few weeks before he realized it "wasn't for him."
Hub AI
Ocean Vuong AI simulator
(@Ocean Vuong_simulator)
Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong (born Vương Quốc Vinh, Vietnamese: [vɨəŋ˧ kuək˧˥ viɲ˧]; born 1988) is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. His debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published in 2019. He received a MacArthur Grant that same year. He is the recipient of the 2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize.
Ocean Vuong was born Vương Quốc Vinh in 1988 in Hồ Chí Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) in Vietnam, to a multiracial mother. His maternal grandmother grew up in rural Vietnam. At that time his maternal grandfather, a farm boy from Michigan, was serving in the United States Navy, during the Vietnam War. He met and fell in love with Vuong's grandmother, whom Vuong has described as "an illiterate girl from the rice paddies."
Vuong's grandparents married and had three daughters, one of whom was Vuong's mother. His grandfather had gone back to visit family in the U.S., and was unable to return when Saigon fell to communist forces. Fearing for their safety, his grandmother made the difficult decision to place his mother and her sisters in separate orphanages. With the rising dangers associated with being seen as a collaborator, she believed splitting them up would give them the best chance for survival. "It was a humanitarian crisis, and there was more chance of them surviving like that," he explains. His grandmother also worried they might be taken out of Vietnam.
As daughters of a US serviceman, they would have qualified for Operation Babylift, a program that evacuated children to the United States for adoption. If kept together, they might have also been viewed as a family unit, making them a target for dissidents seeking to leave the country. By separating them, she hoped to protect them from these risks and increase their chances of survival.
By the time the family was reunited, his mother had already reached adulthood. At 18, she had given birth to Ocean and was working in a Saigon salon, washing men's hair to make ends meet. However, her mixed-race heritage caught the attention of a policeman, who recognized that, under Vietnamese law, she was working illegally due to her background. This discovery put the family at significant risk, forcing them to flee Vietnam for safety. The family was evacuated to a refugee camp in the Philippines, where they waited as the Salvation Army processed their resettlement claim. Two-year-old Vuong and his family eventually gained asylum and migrated to the United States. They settled in Hartford, Connecticut, sharing a one-bedroom apartment with seven relatives. His father abandoned the family one day and never returned.[citation needed]
Vuong was the first in his family to achieve proficiency in reading and writing, learning to read at the age of eleven. He suspected dyslexia ran in his family. At 15 years old, Vuong worked on a tobacco farm illegally and would later describe his experiences on the farm in On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. He was reunited with his maternal grandfather later in life.
Vuong attended Glastonbury High School in Glastonbury, Connecticut, a school known for academic excellence. "I didn't know how to make use of it," Vuong has stated, noting that his grade point average at one point was 1.7.
While in high school, Vuong told fellow Glastonbury graduate Kat Chow, he "understood he had to leave Connecticut." After spending some time studying at Manchester Community College, he transferred to Pace University in New York City to study marketing. His time there lasted only a few weeks before he realized it "wasn't for him."
Recent media