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Ocean Vuong

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OceanVuong

Ocean Vuong in 2014. Photo by TdBooks. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikipedia.

Ocean Vuong
Born Vương Quốc Vinh
October 14, 1988 (1988-10-14) (age 35)
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Occupation Writer, poet, professor
Language English
Nationality American
Citizenship American
Alma mater Brooklyn College, City University of New York
Genres poetry, essays, novel
Notable award(s) Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg fellowship; The Pushcart Prize; T.S. Eliot Prize; MacArthur Fellowship
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Ocean Vuong (born October 14, 1988) is a Vietnamese-American poet, essayist, and novelist.

Life[]

Youth and education[]

Vuong was born Vương Quốc Vinh on a rice farm near Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam. His grandmother was a young woman who grew up on the country side while his grandfather was a white American soldier in the Navy originally from Michigan. His grandparents met during the Vietnam War, married and had 3 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 the fall of Saigon happened. His grandmother had placed his mother and aunts in orphanage, concerned for their survival, before reuniting with them as adults. They fled Vietnam after a police officer had suspected that his mother was of mixed race heritage and in turn was working illegally under Vietnamese law.[1]

A 2-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, with 6 relatives. His father abandoned his family after that. Vuong was reunited with his maternal grandfather later in life.[2][3][4][1] Vuong, who suspects dyslexia runs in his family,[1] was the earliest in his family to learn to read,[4] at the age of eleven.[3]

Vuong describes himself as being raised by women. His mother, a manicurist, gave him the name of Ocean. 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 Vietnam — she renamed him Ocean.[3]

Vuong is openly gay,[5] and is a practicing Zen Buddhist.[6]

Vuong earned a B.A. in 19th century English Literature at Brooklyn College, within the City University of New York system, where he studied under poet and novelist Ben Lerner.[7][8] He received his M.F.A. in poetry from New York University.

Career[]

His poems and essays have been published in various journals, including Poetry,[2] The Nation,[9] TriQuarterly,[10] Guernica,[11] The Rumpus,[12] Boston Review,[13] Narrative Magazine, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times.[14]

His debut chapbook, Burnings (Sibling Rivalry Press), was a 2011 "Over The Rainbow" selection for notable books on nonheterosexuality by the American Library Association.[15] His second chapbook, No (YesYes Books), was released in 2013.[16] His debut full-length collection, Night Sky With Exit Wounds,[17] was released by Copper Canyon Press in 2016; as of April that year, the publisher ran a second printing.[18] His first novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, was published by Penguin Books on June 4, 2019.

Vuong lives in Northampton, Massachusetts[19] and is an assistant professor in the MFA Program for Writers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.[19] He is a Kundiman fellow.[20]

Writing

Writing in The New Yorker, Jia Tolentino sees the "structural hallmarks of Vuong's poetry—his skill with elision, juxtaposition, and sequencing" in his debut novel.[21]

Recognition[]

Vuong was awarded 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.[22]

Awards and fellowships[]

  • Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg fellowship, 2014[23]
  • The Pushcart Prize, 2014[24]
  • The Elizabeth George Foundation Fellowship, 2013[25]
  • Chad Walsh Prize, Beloit Poetry Journal, 2013[26]
  • Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets, 2012[27]
  • Academy of American Poets University and College Poetry Prize, 2010[28]
  • The Narrative Prize, 2015[29]
  • Whiting Award for Poetry, 2016[30]
  • Forward Prize for Poetry Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, 2017[31]
  • T. S. Eliot Prize, 2017[32]
  • Kundiman Fellow[20]
  • MacArthur Genius Grant (2019)[22]

Publications[]

Collections[]

Novels[]

  • On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin Press, 2019). OCLC 1052450975
Ocean_Vuong_-_"Ode_to_Masturbation"

Ocean Vuong - "Ode to Masturbation"


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[33]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Armitstead, Claire (3 October 2017). "War baby: the amazing story of Ocean Vuong, former refugee and prize-winning poet". https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/03/ocean-vuong-forward-prize-vietnam-war-saigon-night-sky-with-exit-wounds. Retrieved 3 October 2018. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Ocean Vuong" (in en-us). 2018-05-11. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ocean-vuong. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "How a Poet Named Ocean Means to Fix the English Language". http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-a-poet-named-ocean-means-to-fix-the-english-language. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Review: 'Night Sky With Exit Wounds,' Verses From Ocean Vuong" (in en-US). The New York Times. 2016-05-09. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/books/review-night-sky-with-exit-wounds-verses-from-ocean-vuong.html. 
  5. ↑ "Ocean Vuong: The TNB Self-Interview". 1 August 2011. http://thenervousbreakdown.com/ovuong/2011/08/ocean-vuong-the-tnb-self-interview/. 
  6. ↑ "Template:Citation error". https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/scares-writer-zen-buddhist-ocean-vuong. 
  7. ↑ "Brooklyn College | Ocean Sounds: A Brooklyn College Alumnus Reflects on His Life". Brooklyn.cuny.edu. 2012-06-05. http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/news/bcnews/bcnews_120605.php. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  8. ↑ "Brooklyn College | Mentoring Demands Respect, Says Ben Lerner About His Work with Ocean Vuong". Brooklyn.cuny.edu. 2013-06-14. http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/news/bcnews/bcnews_130614.php. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  9. ↑ Vuong, Ocean (2014-01-28). "Eurydice". The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/article/178131/eurydice. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  10. ↑ "|". Triquarterly.org. 2014-07-15. http://www.triquarterly.org/contributors/ocean-vuong. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  11. ↑ "Ocean Vuong: I Remember Anyway – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics". Guernicamag.com. https://www.guernicamag.com/daily/ocean-vuong-i-remember-anyway/. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  12. ↑ "Ocean Vuong". The Rumpus.net. 2014-08-28. http://therumpus.net/author/ocean-vuong/. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  13. ↑ "Poet's Sampler: Ocean Vuong". Boston Review. 2014-09-08. http://www.bostonreview.net/poetry/amy-king-ocean-vuong-poets-sampler-ocean-vuong. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  14. ↑ "Ocean Vuong". http://as.nyu.edu/faculty/ocean-vuong.html. 
  15. ↑ "2012 Over the Rainbow List–74 LGBT Books for Adult Readers! – Over the Rainbow Books". Glbtrt.ala.org. http://www.glbtrt.ala.org/overtherainbow/archives/342. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  16. ↑ "yesyesbooks". yesyesbooks. http://yesyesbooks.com/authors-artists/vuong-ocean/. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  17. ↑ "Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Poetry by Ocean Vuong". Copper Canyon Press. https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/pages/browse/book.asp?bg={22111C10-96F9-4D24-AD78-EF8192FDFBE4}. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  18. ↑ "Copper Canyon Press – Timeline". Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/coppercanyonpress/photos/a.280154085314.319896.81940010314/10154548813685315. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "oceanvuong" (in en). https://www.oceanvuong.com/about. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Fellows" (in en-US). http://kundiman.org/fellows. 
  21. ↑ Tolentino, Jia (2019-06-03). "Ocean Vuong’s Life Sentences" (in en). ISSN 0028-792X. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/10/ocean-vuongs-life-sentences. 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Ocean Vuong – Class of 2019". 25 September 2019. https://www.macfound.org/fellows/1052/. Retrieved 25 September 2019. 
  23. ↑ "Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships". Poetry Foundation. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/prizes_fellowship. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  24. ↑ "Welcome to Pushcart Press: Publishers of The Pushcart Prize". Pushcartprize.com. http://www.pushcartprize.com/news.html. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  25. ↑ "The Elizabeth George Foundation". Elizabethgeorgeonline.com. http://www.elizabethgeorgeonline.com/foundation.htm. Retrieved 2016-08-28. 
  26. ↑ "Ocean Vuong wins the 2013 Beloit Poetry Journal Chad Walsh Poetry Prize". http://kundiman.org/announcements/2013/11/14/ocean-vuong-wins-the-2013-beloit-poetry-journal-chad-walsh-poetry-prize. Retrieved 3 October 2018. 
  27. ↑ "Ocean Vuong – 2012 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prizediacritics.org". 18 October 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141018113211/http://diacritics.org/2012/oceanvuong-poetry-prize. Retrieved 3 October 2018. 
  28. ↑ aapone (31 December 1979). "University & College Poetry Prizes". https://www.poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes/university-college-poetry-prizes. Retrieved 3 October 2018. 
  29. ↑ "Ocean Vuong – Narrative Magazine". 8 September 2014. http://www.narrativemagazine.com/authors/ocean-vuong. Retrieved 3 October 2018. 
  30. ↑ "Ocean Vuong". http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/ocean-vuong#/. Retrieved 3 October 2018. 
  31. ↑ "Congratulations to the Forward Prize winners – The Poetry Society". http://poetrysociety.org.uk/news/congratulations-to-the-forward-prize-winners/. Retrieved 3 October 2018. 
  32. ↑ Cain, Sian (15 January 2018). "TS Eliot prize goes to Ocean Vuong's 'compellingly assured' debut collection". https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/15/ts-eliot-prize-goes-to-ocean-vuongs-compellingly-assured-debut-collection. Retrieved 3 October 2018. 
  33. ↑ Search results = au:Ocean Vuong, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 12, 2020.

External links[]

Poems

8Ocean Vuong profile & 3 poems at the Academy of American Poets

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