Archive

The Cleaving: Vietnamese Writers in the Diaspora

DVAN Executive Director Isabelle Pelaud sat down with Unseen Histories for a conversation about The Cleaving – an anthology of dialogues between Vietnamese writers across borders. Isabelle discussed how race, colonialism, and war crucially inform Vietnamese literature, particularly with the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in Trump’s America.

Dodging Flying Bánh Mìs and Healing Intergenerational Wounds

Reading "The Family Recipe" by Carolyn Huynh is like sitting with a Vietnamese cousin in a cafe while she catches you up on the latest family drama

Quieter Afterlives

In Stories from the Edges of the Sea, Andrew Lam writes not from the center of trauma but from its quieter afterlives. These are...

The Things We Carry—And How We’re Healing

This is just the journey that my family went on, and I wouldn't be the person I am today without all of that having happened.

Brother Hưng’s Teapot

He hurled the teapot with all his strength. It soared for kilometers, entered a half-built mansion, winding its way into a bricklayer’s shack, then smashed into uncle Đạt’s lunchbox.

April 2025: 50 Years

April 30, 2025 marks 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War and the beginning of the modern Vietnamese diasporic story.

In Search of Narrative Plenitude

It is an incredible moment to be a Vietnamese diasporic writer.

19 Essential Vietnamese Diaspora Books

We asked writers, scholars, and critics about the Vietnamese diasporic books they think are the most important. Here’s what they said.

In Conversation with Khuê Phạm

For many people in Germany, it was like an introduction to the Vietnam War and its legacy.

Motion Sickness

Motion sickness runs on my mother’s side of the family.