Ocean Vuong
b. 1988
About Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong (born 1988) is a Vietnamese-American poet and novelist whose work transforms the experience of war, migration, queer identity, and grief into some of the most celebrated writing of his generation. Born in Ho Chi Minh City, he arrived in the United States at age two as a refugee and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut in a family of tobacco workers. S.
Eliot Prize and the Whiting Award. His autofictional novel *On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous* (2019) — written as a letter from a son to his illiterate mother — became a New York Times bestseller and was translated into dozens of languages. He holds an MFA from New York University and teaches at UMass Amherst.
His writing is distinguished by its lyrical compression, its tenderness toward the wounded body, and its refusal to make suffering beautiful without also making it true.
“The most beautiful part of your body is where it's headed.”
Quick Facts
- Born
- 1988
- Age
- 38 years
- Domain
- inspiration
- Quotes
- 5 collected
- Key Themes
- HopeResilienceMemoryVisibilityTenderness
Learn More
Wikipedia — Ocean VuongOcean Vuong's Famous Quotes
5 quotes
“The most beautiful part of your body is where it's headed.”
— "Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong" poem from Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016)
“Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence—but that violence, having passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.”
— Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016)
“Memory is a choice.”
— On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019)
“To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.”
— Night Sky with Exit Wounds (2016)
“Sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you've been ruined.”
— On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019)
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Frequently Asked Questions
Ocean Vuong (born 1988) is a Vietnamese-American poet and novelist whose work transforms the experience of war, migration, queer identity, and grief into some of the most celebrated writing of his generation. Born in Ho Chi Minh City, he arrived in the United States at age two as a refugee and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut in a family of tobacco workers. His debut poetry collection *Night Sky with Exit Wounds* (2016) won the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whiting Award. His autofictional novel *On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous* (2019) — written as a letter from a son to his illiterate mother — became a New York Times bestseller and was translated into dozens of languages. He holds an MFA from New York University and teaches at UMass Amherst. His writing is distinguished by its lyrical compression, its tenderness toward the wounded body, and its refusal to make suffering beautiful without also making it true. Ocean Vuong lived b. 1988.