Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong | |
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![]() Vuong in 2019 | |
Born | Vương Quốc Vinh October 14, 1988 Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam |
Occupation | Writer, poet, professor |
Language | English |
Citizenship | American |
Alma mater | |
Genre | Poetry, essays, novel |
Notable works | On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019) |
Notable awards |
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Website | |
www![]() |
Ocean Vuong (born Vương Quốc Vinh,[1] Vietnamese: [vɨəŋ˧ kuək˧˥ viɲ˧]; October 14, 1988) is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist and novelist. Vuong is a recipient of the 2014 Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize for his poetry.[2] His debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published in 2019. He received a MacArthur Grant the same year.[3]
Early life[]
Vuong was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, on a rice farm. His grandmother was a young woman who grew up in the countryside while his grandfather was a white American soldier in the Navy originally from Michigan. His grandparents met during the Viet Nam War, married and had three children, Vuong's mother being one of them. His grandfather had gone back to visit home in the U.S. but was unable to return when Saigon fell to communist forces. His grandmother had separated his mother and aunts in orphanages, concerned for their survival before reuniting as adults. They fled Viet Nam after a police officer came to suspect that his mother was of mixed heritage and in turn was working illegally under Viet Namese law.[4]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cf/OceanWiki.jpg/220px-OceanWiki.jpg)
A two-year-old Vuong and his family eventually arrived in a refugee camp in the Philippines before achieving asylum and migrating to the United States, settling in Hartford, Connecticut, United States with six relatives. His father abandoned his family after that. Vuong was reunited with his paternal grandfather later in life.[2][5][6][4] Vuong, who suspects dyslexia runs in his family,[4] was the first in his family to learn to read,[6] at the age of eleven.[5]
Education[]
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 said, noting that his grade point average at one point was 1.7.[7]
While in high school, he told fellow Glastonbury graduate Kat Chow he "understood he had to leave Connecticut." After spending some time at a community college, Vuong headed to Pace University, in New York, to study marketing. His time there lasted only a few weeks before he understood it wasn’t for him."[8]
He then enrolled at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, where he studied 19th-century English literature under poet and novelist Ben Lerner, and received his B.A. in English.[9][10] He received his M.F.A. in poetry from New York University.
Career[]
Vuong's poems and essays have been published in various journals, including Poetry,[2] The Nation,[11] TriQuarterly,[12] Guernica,[13] The Rumpus,[14] Boston Review,[15] Narrative Magazine, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times.[16]
His first chapbook, Burnings (Sibling Rivalry Press), was a 2011 "Over The Rainbow" selection for notable books on nonheterosexuality by the American Library Association.[17] His second chapbook, No (YesYes Books), was released in 2013.[18] His debut full-length collection, Night Sky With Exit Wounds,[19] was released by Copper Canyon Press in 2016; as of April that year, the publisher ran a second printing.[20] His first novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published by Penguin Press on June 4, 2019. Writing in The New Yorker, Jia Tolentino sees the "structural hallmarks of Vuong's poetry—his skill with elision, juxtaposition, and sequencing" in the novel.[21] Paul Batchelor, writing about his first collection in New Statesman, remarks on the surreal imagery of his poems.[22]
In August 2020, Vuong was revealed as the seventh writer to contribute to the Future Library project.[23] The project, which compiles original works by writers each year from 2014 to 2114, will remain unread until the collected 100 works are eventually published in 2114. Discussing his contribution to the project, Vuong opined that, "So much of publishing is about seeing your name in the world, but this is the opposite, putting the future ghost of you forward. You and I will have to die in order for us to get these texts. That is a heady thing to write towards, so I will sit with it a while.”
Currently, Vuong lives in Northampton, Massachusetts,[24] and is an associate professor in the MFA Program for Writers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.[24] He is a Kundiman fellow.[25]
Awards and fellowships[]
Award | Year | Citation |
---|---|---|
Academy of American Poets University and College Poetry Prize | 2010 | [26] |
Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets | 2012 | [27] |
The Elizabeth George Foundation Fellowship | 2013 | [28] |
Chad Walsh Prize, Beloit Poetry Journal | 2013 | [29] |
The Pushcart Prize | 2014 | [30] |
Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship | 2014 | [31] |
The Narrative Prize | 2015 | [32] |
Whiting Award for Poetry | 2016 | [33] |
Forward Prize for Poetry Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection | 2017 | [34] |
T. S. Eliot Prize | 2017 | [35] |
Kundiman Fellowship | 2018 | [25] |
MacArthur Fellow | 2019 | [3] |
Dylan Thomas Prize - Shortlisted for On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous | 2020 | [36] |
NAAAP Pride Award | 2020 | [37] |
Personal life[]
Vuong has described himself as being raised by women. His mother, a manicurist, gave him the name of Beach. During a conversation with a customer, Vuong's mother pronounced the word "beach" as "bitch". The customer suggested she use the word "ocean" to substitute for "beach". After learning the definition of the word ocean — the most massive classified body of water, such as the Pacific Ocean, which connects the United States and Viet Nam — she renamed him Ocean.[5]
Vuong is openly gay,[38] and is a practicing Zen Buddhist.[39]
Bibliography[]
Novels[]
- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin Press, 2019). OCLC 1052450975
Collections[]
- Burnings (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2010). OCLC 1001862161
- No (YesYes Books, 2013). OCLC 878505119
- Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press, 2016). OCLC 1023185217
- Time Is a Mother (Penguin Press, 2022).
List of poems[]
Title | Year | First published |
---|---|---|
Trevor | 2016 | Vuong, Ocean (March 25, 2016). "Trevor".[40] Buzzfeed. |
Someday I'll love Ocean Vuong | 2015 | Vuong, Ocean (May 4, 2015). "Someday I'll love Ocean Vuong". The New Yorker. Vol. 91 no. 11. pp. 50–51. |
Scavengers | 2016 | Vuong, Ocean (November 7, 2016). "Scavengers". The New Yorker. Vol. 92 no. 36. p. 51. |
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous | 2014 | Vuong, Ocean (December 2014). Poetry magazine. Winter 2014–2015. |
See also[]
- LGBT culture in New York City
- List of LGBT people from New York City
- List of Vietnamese Americans
References[]
- ^ "A Vessel for Peace: An Interview with Writer Ocean Vuong". The Well&Often Reader. February 2013.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Ocean Vuong". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. May 11, 2018. Retrieved May 12, 2018.CS1 maint: others (link)
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Ocean Vuong – Class of 2019". MacArthur Foundation. September 25, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Armitstead, Claire (October 3, 2017). "War baby: the amazing story of Ocean Vuong, former refugee and prize-winning poet". the Guardian. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "How a Poet Named Ocean Means to Fix the English Language". The New Yorker. April 7, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Review: 'Night Sky With Exit Wounds,' Verses From Ocean Vuong". The New York Times. May 9, 2016. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
- ^ Kat Chow, "Going Home With Ocean Vuong," The Atlantic, 4 June 2019, accessed 2020-5-15.[1]
- ^ Kat Chow, "Going Home With Ocean Vuong."
- ^ "Brooklyn College | Ocean Sounds: A Brooklyn College Alumnus Reflects on His Life". Brooklyn.cuny.edu. June 5, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Brooklyn College | Mentoring Demands Respect, Says Ben Lerner About His Work with Ocean Vuong". Brooklyn.cuny.edu. June 14, 2013. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ Vuong, Ocean (January 28, 2014). "Eurydice". The Nation. Retrieved August 28, 2016. Cite magazine requires
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(help) - ^ "|". Triquarterly.org. July 15, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Ocean Vuong: I Remember Anyway – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics". Guernicamag.com. June 14, 2013. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Ocean Vuong". The Rumpus.net. August 28, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Poet's Sampler: Ocean Vuong". Boston Review. September 8, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Ocean Vuong". as.nyu.edu. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
- ^ "2012 Over the Rainbow List–74 LGBT Books for Adult Readers! – Over the Rainbow Books". Glbtrt.ala.org. January 22, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "yesyesbooks". yesyesbooks. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Poetry by Ocean Vuong". Copper Canyon Press. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Copper Canyon Press – Timeline". Facebook. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ Tolentino, Jia (June 3, 2019). "Ocean Vuong's Life Sentences". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
- ^ Batchelor, Paul (July 18, 2017). "Ocean Vuong's poetry brims with precise, surreal and erotic imagery". newstatesman.com. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ "'You'll have to die to get these texts': Ocean Vuong's next manuscript to be unveiled in 2114". The Guardian. August 19, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "oceanvuong". oceanvuong. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Fellows". Kundiman. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
- ^ aapone (December 31, 1979). "University & College Poetry Prizes". University & College Poetry Prizes. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
- ^ "Ocean Vuong – 2012 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prizediacritics.org". October 18, 2014. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
- ^ "The Elizabeth George Foundation". Elizabethgeorgeonline.com. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Ocean Vuong wins the 2013 Beloit Poetry Journal Chad Walsh Poetry Prize". Retrieved October 3, 2018.
- ^ "Welcome to Pushcart Press: Publishers of The Pushcart Prize". Pushcartprize.com. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "Ocean Vuong – Narrative Magazine". September 8, 2014. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
- ^ "Ocean Vuong". www.whiting.org. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
- ^ "Congratulations to the Forward Prize winners – The Poetry Society". poetrysociety.org.uk. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
- ^ Cain, Sian (January 15, 2018). "TS Eliot prize goes to Ocean Vuong's 'compellingly assured' debut collection". the Guardian. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
- ^ "Dylan Thomas Prize 2020 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. April 8, 2020. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ "Awards: NAAAP100, Inspire, Pride | National Association of Asian American Professionals". www.naaap.org. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
- ^ "Ocean Vuong: The TNB Self-Interview". August 1, 2011.
- ^ "What Scares Writer and Zen Buddhist Ocean Vuong". August 16, 2017.
- ^ "Poem: "Trevor" By Ocean Vuong". BuzzFeed News.
External links[]
Media related to Ocean Vuong at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Ocean Vuong at Wikiquote
- Official website
- 1988 births
- Living people
- 21st-century American poets
- 21st-century American essayists
- American male essayists
- American male poets
- American writers of Vietnamese descent
- Brooklyn College alumni
- Gay writers
- LGBT people from New York (state)
- LGBT poets
- LGBT writers from the United States
- The New Yorker people
- Vietnamese emigrants to the United States
- 21st-century American male writers
- LGBT people from Vietnam
- LGBT American people of Asian descent
- LGBT people from Connecticut
- T. S. Eliot Prize winners
- American poets of Asian descent
- 21st-century American novelists
- American male novelists
- American Zen Buddhists
- 21st-century Buddhists
- LGBT Buddhists
- Buddhist poets
- People from Glastonbury, Connecticut
- Writers from Hartford, Connecticut