Quote Me Series

Quote Me: Episode 9

Ocean Vuong: Bridging two worlds

August 31, 2022


Ocean Vuong, a Vietnamese American author, was born in Saigon in 1988 to a family of rice farmers. He became a refugee at the age of two when they fled to the Philippines and later, Hartford, Connecticut. Growing up after 9/11 and during the Opioid epidemic proved to be a difficult prospect for Vuong and his family, not to mention that he was Gay. However, after struggling with dyslexia and learning English as a second language, Vuong dove into the western literary canon and started writing poetry. His collections have won a myriad of prizes including the Whitting award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, has been translated into 37 different languages, and he is the recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Grant. Join us to hear more about this incredible writer!  



​Music:

Cercle by Another Brick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Copyright: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/



Poetry Clips:
ALOUD Podcasts - Las Angeles Public Library
Ocean Vuong In conversation with author Viet Thanh Nguyen

Poetry Foundation - The Poetry Magazine Podcast

Podcast Transcript
​Books by Ocean Vuong:

Further Reading: