Poets & Writers Theater

“I had to pretend I was someone else writing about me to gain some distance from myself because part of the subject of this book is how difficult it is for us to know ourselves.” Viet Thanh Nguyen talks about his family’s struggles and traumas, and the challenges of writing his new book, A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, a Memorial (Grove Atlantic, 2023), in this PBS NewsHour interview with Jeffrey Brown. Nguyen’s memoir is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Watch the trailer for the forthcoming HBO limited series The Sympathizer, an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The series stars Hoa Xuande as a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy forced to flee to the United States near the end of the Vietnam War. The cast also includes Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le, Alan Trong, Ky Duyen, Sandra Oh, and Robert Downey Jr.

“We were the unwanted, the unneeded, and the unseen, invisible to all but ourselves,” reads Washington Post’s Robin Givhan from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s latest novel, The Committed (Grove Press, 2021), in this conversation with the Pulitzer Prize–winning author on how history and memory have shaped his life and writing. 

“One person’s didacticism is another person’s revelation.” At the Center for Fiction, Parul Sehgal moderates a conversation with authors Viet Thanh Nguyen and Chinelo Okparanta as part of the 2017 PEN World Voices Festival.

“They’re unwanted where they come from, they’re unwanted when they arrive, but we have a great tradition of welcoming refugees and turning them into Pulitzer Prize winners.” Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen speaks about his experience as a refugee and the significance of refugees in the United States on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Nguyen’s first short story collection, The Refugees (Grove Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces." Viet Thanh Nguyen reads from his debut novel, The Sympathizer (Grove Press, 2015), for which he was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

“The reason why we have narrative scarcity is because we have economic scarcity, and people don’t have equal access to modes of storytelling.” Viet Thanh Nguyen talks about the value and pressure placed on stories told by writers from minority cultures at an event with Maxine Hong Kingston. Nguyen’s first story collection, The Refugees (Grove Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I take inspiration from the fact that however difficult our moment is today, it’s not as difficult as it has been in the past.” Viet Thanh Nguyen speaks with Bonnie Boswell about the current political climate and connections between his own personal history and his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, The Sympathizer (Grove Press, 2015). Nguyen’s first story collection, The Refugees (Grove Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

At Yale University, Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses his award-winning novel, The Sympathizer (Grove Press, 2015), and his latest book, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (Harvard University Press, 2016), which is a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award in nonfiction.