WELCOME
The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) is thrilled to present Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer, in conversation with Nam Le, author of The Boat, in Melbourne, Australia for the first time! Le will be discussing his new book of poems, 36 Ways to Write a Vietnamese Poem, an urgent, unsettling reckoning with identity—and the violence of identity. This event is a fundraiser, and all proceeds will go to support DVAN whose mission is to uplift the voices and stories of the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diaspora.
In response to requests from the community, we are now offering two tiers of tickets to make the event more accessible to a wider audience: $90AUD for General Admission, and $50AUD concession rate for students, writers and artists. If you are purchasing a student ticket, please bring your student ID to the venue for verification. Tickets can be purchased here.
DVAN is excited to further our mission in Australia. Within the last five years, we have been working with Vietnamese Australian writers to diversify the narratives of our diasporic communities. Nam Le from Melbourne joined our first writers residency at the beautiful Djerassi Arts in Northern California in 2018. In 2023, our New Author Fellowship was awarded to Vivian Pham from Sydney to attend a month-long residency at the prestigious Millay Arts in upstate New York. Sheila Ngoc Pham, the organizer of this fundraising event, also from Sydney, has been a Contributing Editor to our online journal, diaCRITICS, since 2018. We are excited that Australian writers Tracey Lien and André Dao will be included in our new book, The Cleaving: Vietnamese Writers in the Diaspora, forthcoming from the University of California Press in 2025.
In the last two years, DVAN produced 8 books. Next year, we will have 8 more. DVAN is working to break systemic barriers that prevent our writers from being published and read widely. However, we cannot affect social change alone. We need the help of community members like you. If you’d like to be part of our movement for social change, please share what we do with others, donate, volunteer, read, attend readings, and share your skills. https://dvan.org/donate/.
Viet Thanh Nguyen and Nam Le will sign books at the event.
Light refreshments will be provided by a local Vietnamese eatery in Melbourne. Drinks available for purchase at the bar.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
VIET THANH NGUYEN’s novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and numerous other awards. His most recent publication is A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial. His other books are the sequel to The Sympathizer, The Committed; a short story collection, The Refugees; Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction); and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. He has also published two children’s books: Chicken of the Sea, written in collaboration with his son, Ellison, and Simone, named for his daughter. He is a University Professor at the University of Southern California. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, he is also the editor of The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives.
NAM LE’s poetry has been published in The Monthly, The Paris Review, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Bomb, Conjunctions, Boston Review, Lana Turner and Tin House. His short story collection The Boat received numerous major international awards, including the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award, the Melbourne Prize for Literature, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The Boat has been republished as a modern classic and is widely translated, anthologised and taught. Nam Le lives in Melbourne.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Đất Nước Library
Next Wave
For more info on the host and authors:
Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) - Website | Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) - Instagram | Diasporic Vietnamese Artist Network (DVAN) - Facebook| Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) - Twitter | Diasporic Vietnamese Artist Network (DVAN) - LinkedIn | Diasporic Vietnamese Artist Network (DVAN) - Vimeo
Viet Thanh Nguyen – Website | Viet Thanh Nguyen – Instagram | Viet Thanh Nguyen – Facebook
Nam Le - Website
-------------------
Please note, by registering for DVAN events via Eventbrite - DVAN may contact you with information about future events, programs, and donor/sponsor opportunities.
