Viet Thanh Nguyen

Trump hosts Kennedy Center honorees and teases hosting skills: ‘I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews’ George Strait, ‘Sly’ Stallone and Kiss accept medals from president, who says he was ‘98% involved’ in choosing them

I believe the major criteria for receiving an award now at the Kennedy Center is being willing to accept one.

Win the chance to Zoom with me or a signed book & help fund vital work protecting civil rights & social justice. Bid by 12/11 for a copy of To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other and by 12/18 for a Zoom meeting! Items available on @charitybuzz.bsky.social www.charitybuzz.com/publiccounsel

I want to live in a world that respects justice, so I am supporting Public Counsel, a great organization that provides pro bono law for children, families, veterans, students, immigrants, nonprofits and small businesses.

This is straight from joseph Heller‘s Catch-22. We wouldn’t have had to kill them if they just let themselves drown.

Just simply amazing that Democrats can now clearly see on video that an unjustified killing has taken place...while denying what was clearly being shown on video from Gaza.

Israel weaponized the dead children of Oct 7 to justify killing thousands of Palestinians, many of them children.

Palestinians used images and stories of dead children to demand an end to the killing by Israel and the US.

A huge difference the cynics in power don't seem to understand.

VOICES FOR GAZA was made possible by the producers Raad Rahman and Michiko Clark, as well as Sarah McNally and McNally Jackson Books, and took place at The Town Hall in New York City on Sept. 21, 2025, hosted by Aasif Mandvi and with conversations moderated by John Freeman.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share videos from throughout the night.

VOICES FOR GAZA brought together Palestinian writers, activists, & their allies. Before hundreds, the speakers demonstrated one of the most important values that can sustain us in a time of seemingly unending mourning, resistance, and struggle: solidarity. In this post, we hear from me (3/3).

VOICES FOR GAZA was made possible by the producers Raad Rahman and Michiko Clark, as well as Sarah McNally and McNally Jackson Books, and took place at The Town Hall in New York City on Sept. 21, 2025, hosted by Aasif Mandvi and with conversations moderated by John Freeman.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share videos from throughout the night.

VOICES FOR GAZA brought together Palestinian writers, activists, & their allies. Before hundreds, the speakers demonstrated one of the most important values that can sustain us in a time of seemingly unending mourning, resistance, and struggle: solidarity. In this post, we hear from me (2/3).

VOICES FOR GAZA was made possible by the producers Raad Rahman and Michiko Clark, as well as Sarah McNally and McNally Jackson Books, and took place at The Town Hall in New York City on Sept. 21, 2025, hosted by Aasif Mandvi and with conversations moderated by John Freeman.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share videos from throughout the night.

VOICES FOR GAZA brought together Palestinian writers, activists, & their allies. Before hundreds, the speakers demonstrated one of the most important values that can sustain us in a time of seemingly unending mourning, resistance, and struggle: solidarity. In this post, we hear from me (1/3).

More Great Leader vibes given by the “Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.”

The weirdest thing is that his name is on the building in silver instead of gold.

Where were all these Democrats and Republicans when Israel was firing on the wounded and killing survivors? Which it is still doing in Gaza?

Robert McNamara also evoked the “fog of war” to explain how he helped lead the USA into the war in Viet Nam. The journalist Nick Turse cut through that fog when he described American military policy as being “kill everything that moves,” signaled from the top. The fog only results from the clarity.

Drug dealing is bad, except when presidents, nation-states, and pharmaceutical corps do it. See: British in China, French in Indochina, the biggest opium dealers in the world. The ones who pay are dealers on the streets, alleged drug runners in boats, or the demon of the day, Maduro.

VOICES FOR GAZA was made possible by the producers Raad Rahman and Michiko Clark, as well as Sarah McNally and McNally Jackson Books, and took place at The Town Hall in New York City on Sept. 21, 2025, hosted by Aasif Mandvi and with conversations moderated by John Freeman.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share videos from throughout the night.

VOICES FOR GAZA brought together Palestinian writers, activists, & their allies. Before hundreds, the speakers demonstrated one of the most important values that can sustain us in a time of seemingly unending mourning, resistance, and struggle: solidarity. In this post, we hear from Seema Jilani.

Dumb and dumber. Take your pick of who’s who. These dangerous idiots don’t realize that Trump will let them hang (out to dry).

The connection between Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the USA’s murder of Venezuelans is the desire on the part of both states and their fascist leaders to exercise unchecked power, including the power to kill at will without justification or consequence. We should all be frightened.

VOICES FOR GAZA was made possible by the producers Raad Rahman and Michiko Clark, as well as Sarah McNally and McNally Jackson Books, and took place at The Town Hall in New York City on Sept. 21, 2025, hosted by Aasif Mandvi and with conversations moderated by John Freeman.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share videos from throughout the night.

VOICES FOR GAZA brought together Palestinian writers, activists, & their allies. Before hundreds, the speakers demonstrated one of the most important values that can sustain us in a time of seemingly unending mourning, resistance, & struggle: solidarity. Here, we hear from Hannah Lillith Assadi.

I appreciate the correction, as someone with also a penchant for military history and general nerdiness

And please consider supporting DVAN so we can continue producing outstanding content like this and to support Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diasporic arts.

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ÁCCENTED #50 | Ocean Vuong in Conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen This is a recording of DVAN's 50th episode of ÁCCENTED, featuring award-winning writer Ocean Vuong in conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen! The virtual event took place on November 13, 2025. ABOUT THE GUEST Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the American Book Award, he used to work as a fast-food server, which inspired The Emperor of Gladness. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently splits his time between Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York City. ABOUT THE HOST Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and numerous other awards. His most recent publication is A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial. His other books are the sequel to The Sympathizer, The Committed; a short story collection, The Refugees; Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction); and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. He has also published Chicken of the Sea, a children’s book written in collaboration with his son, Ellison. He is a University Professor at the University of Southern California. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, he is also the editor of The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, and the forthcoming children’s book Simone illustrated by Minnie Phan. ABOUT DVAN The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) is dedicated to moving the voices and stories of the Vietnamese diaspora from the margins to the center. For over 20 years, DVAN has uplifted diasporic writers and artists through community events, writing residencies, and publishing opportunities, ensuring their perspectives reshape and expand the broader cultural narrative. Learn more at dvan.org. ABOUT ÁCCENTED ÁCCENTED is DVAN’s acclaimed talk show and podcast, hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen and community leader Philip Nguyen. Since launching in 2020, ÁCCENTED has become a global platform for dynamic, thought-provoking conversations that amplify the voices of writers, poets, visual artists, and other cultural producers of the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diaspora.

Here’s the recording of my conversation with Ocean Vuong on the podcast ÁCCENTED: DIALOGUES IN DIASPORA from the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN).

bit.ly/ocean-vuong-...