Across the Ocean: Viet Thanh Nguyen in conversation with Nam Le
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.