Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
Viet Thanh Nguyen is the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, where he is also a member of the steering committee for the Center for Transpacific Studies. The Vietnamese-American novelist is the 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winner for his novel The Sympathizer and a 2017 MacArthur fellow.
Viet Thanh Nguyen: The Sympathizer The Pulitzer Prize-winning author discusses his acclaimed novel and the legacy of the Vietnam War.
LA's Viet Thanh Nguyen and Yuval Sharon on becoming MacArthur 'Geniuses' Four of the MacArthur fellows this year are from Los Angeles. They include theater artist Taylor Mac, painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby, novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen and opera director Yuval Sharon. Each will receive a so-called genius grant worth $625,000. We speak with Sharon and Nguyen about what the award means to them, how they’ll spend the grant money, and what projects are next for them. Viet Thanh Nguyen Yuval Sharon Images courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Viet Thanh Nguyen on being a refugee and being unwanted Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen’s new short story collection, “The Refugees,” focuses on people living between two worlds — how they switch identities and navigate issues of love, family and immigration. Nguyen talks about his personal sense of being a refugee, and points out the important difference between an immigrant and a refugee.
Pulitzer Prize Winning Novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen Viet Thanh Nguyen was recently named this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel, “The Sympathizer.” Unlike almost all other American books or films about the Vietnam war, the novel’s main characters are Vietnamese, but the book’s protagonist is not clearly defined. He’s half Vietnamese and half European. He was educated in Southern California and is a double agent. Nguyen himself was four years old when Saigon fell, and his family escaped and came to the United States as refugees in 1975. He was raised in Southern California and is now a professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC.
'The Sympathizer' There are plenty of films and books depicting the horrors of the Vietnam War. But most look at it from the American perspective. Author Viet Thanh Nguyen took the Vietnamese position in his tragicomic novel The Sympathizer. The main character is a half-European, half-Vietnamese spy placed in Saigon at the end of the war. Nguyen himself was only four-years-old when his family fled Saigon in 1975 for the United States.
“The Sympathizer” offers fresh look at Vietnam War Forty years ago marked the definitive end to the Vietnam War. The Americans evacuated and on April 30th , Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese communist forces. Viet Thanh Nguyen was four years old. His family escaped Saigon and came to the United States as refugees in 1975. Nguyen’s new novel, The Sympathizer , takes place just after the end of the war. Unlike almost all other American books or films about the war, The Sympathizer ’s main characters are Vietnamese, offering a fresh look at a contentious history.
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