Viet Thanh Nguyen

Viet was born in Ban Mê Thuột, South Vietnam in 1971.^[17] He was the son of Linda Thanh Nguyen and Joseph Thanh Nguyen,^[18] refugees from North Vietnam who had moved south in 1954.^[19][20] Viet's mother's real name is Nguyễn Thị Bảy and she is a highly influential person in his life. In an excerpt from his book A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial, Viet writes: "People like Má^[b] who will not be remembered by History are also a part of History, drafted as reluctant players in horrific wars... Unlike soldiers, these civilians, many of them women and children, never get the recognition they deserve. Some endure more terror, see more horror, than some soldiers."^[18][21]

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Viet's family fled to the United States.^[22] They left behind Viet's 16-year-old adopted sister, whom he did not see again for nearly 30 years.^[19] His family first settled in Fort Indiantown Gap, one of four American camps that accommodated refugees from Vietnam,^[23] then moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, until 1978.^[24][25] San Jose, California was the Nguyen family's next destination, where his parents opened a Vietnamese grocery store called SàiGòn Mới,^[26] one of the first of its kind in the area.^[27] On Christmas Eve, when Viet was nine years old, his parents survived being shot during a robbery at their store.^[28][29] When he was 16, a gunman broke into the family's house and threatened them. Viet's mother ran into the street screaming for help and saved everyone's lives.^[18][30]

Seven years after arriving in America, Viet's older brother, Tung Thanh Nguyen (Vietnamese: Nguyễn Thanh Tùng), whom he calls "the original refugee success story", entered Harvard University.^[31][32] Tung graduated four years later with a B.A. in philosophy,^[33] and earned an M.D. in 1991 from Stanford University.^[34] Tung is the Stephen J. McPhee, MD Endowed Chair in General Internal Medicine and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.^[35][36] He also served as a Commissioner on President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (2011–14) and as the Chair of the Commission (2014–17).^[37][38]

As a child, Viet often enjoyed reading literature about the Vietnam War, preferably those from the Vietnamese perspectives, which were rather rare at the time in comparison with the overwhelming amount of American narratives.^[39] While growing up in San Jose, Viet attended St. Patrick School, a Catholic elementary school,^[25] and Bellarmine College Preparatory.^[40]

Viet attended UCLA for a quarter and the University of California, Riverside for a year before finishing his studies at the University of California, Berkeley.^[41][42][43] He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Ethnic Studies.^[44][45][3] At the age of 26, he earned a PhD in English from Berkeley in 1997.^[46][47]

Viet spoke at Borah High School (above) and The Egyptian Theatre (below) in 2018.

In 1997, Viet moved to Los Angeles for a teaching position as an assistant professor at the University of Southern California in both the English Department, and in the American Studies and Ethnicity Department.^[45] In 2003, he became an associate professor in the two departments.^[48][49] He is currently the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity and Comparative Literature.^[3]

Viet was appointed the 2023 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University and presented a series of six lectures titled To Save and to Destroy. His series is the first to be given in person on Harvard’s campus since 2018.^[50] Viet is also the first Asian American to lead the Charles Eliot Norton Lecture Series, alongside other writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, T. S. Eliot, and Toni Morrison.^[16]

In addition to teaching and writing, Viet serves as cultural critic-at-large for the Los Angeles Times,^[51] he is also the founder and editor of diaCRITICS, a blog for the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network.^[52][53]

In 2016, Viet spoke out for Palestinian rights by supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.^[90] In 2023, after Viet signed an open letter in the London Review of Books urging "an end to violence and destruction in Palestine," a Jewish organization at the 92nd Street Y canceled a scheduled reading by Viet without explanation.^[91] After the cancellation, other authors pulled out of the centre's upcoming programming schedule,^[92] and at least two 92NY employees resigned.^[93][94] On Instagram, Viet wrote: "I have no regrets about anything I have said or done in regards to Palestine, Israel, or the occupation and war".^[95] During the Gaza war, he supported a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, including publishers and literary festivals.^[96][97]

Viet is married to Lan Duong, a faculty member in cinema and media studies at USC and a poet, who also grew up in San Jose after coming to the United States as a young refugee.^[18][98][99] They have two children and live in Pasadena, California.^[100]

Viet has also been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies (2011–2012),^[123] the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard (2008–2009),^[48] and the Fine Arts Work Center (2004–2005).^[124] He has also received residencies, fellowships, and grants from the Luce Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council,^[125] the Djerassi Artists Residency, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Huntington Library, the James Irvine Foundation, the Warhol Foundation and Creative Capital.^[126]

His teaching and service awards include the Albert S. Raubenheimer Distinguished Junior Faculty Award for outstanding research, teaching and service, the Mellon Mentoring Award for Faculty Mentoring Graduate Students, the Resident Faculty of the Year Award,^[127] and the General Education Teaching Award.^[128] Multimedia has also been a key part of his teaching: In a recent course on the American War in Viet Nam, he and his students created An Other War Memorial,^[129] which won a grant from the Fund for Innovative Undergraduate Teaching and the USC Provost's Prize for Teaching With Technology.^[130]