Our Mission
The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) uplifts and fosters diasporic Vietnamese and Southeast Asian literary voices. DVAN promotes nonfiction, fiction, and poetry to empower artists in the diaspora and inspire understanding and dialogue within our community, and with others. We champion our complex and diverse stories for future generations. We are refugees, immigrants, survivors, and descendants, and our stories must be heard.
With over five million Vietnamese people overseas, we define ‘diaspora’ as a way to understand the various movements and migrations to and from Vietnam in the aftermath of colonialism and war. We realize that ‘diaspora’ is not a catchall term. It doesn’t simply encompass the experiences of the Vietnamese as a monolith, but rather the diaspora as a transnational community based on the shared and distinct lives of those who may, or may not, identify with the diaspora itself.