Author guide

Ocean Vuong Books in Order

Ocean Vuong was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. He studied nineteenth-century American literature at Brooklyn College and earned an MFA in poetry from New York University. He is the author of the poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother, the poetry chapbooks Burnings and No, and the novels On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and The Emperor of Gladness. He is also a professor of modern poetry and poetics.

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Catalog record updated August 25, 2026.

Ocean Vuong's Newest Book

The Emperor of Gladness

novel · First published 2025

THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER AND TIKTOK SENSATION Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink. Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

The acclaimed debut novel is an accessible entry point to Vuong's fiction and central themes.

Night Sky with Exit Wounds

The canonical debut poetry collection offers a strong introduction to Vuong's poetic voice.

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

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Novels (2)

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
novel · 2019

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose…
The Emperor of Gladness
novel · 2025

THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER AND TIKTOK SENSATION Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive One late summer evening in the post-industrial…

Poetry (4)

Burnings
poetry_chapbook · 2010
No
poetry_chapbook · 2013

By turns surreal and earthbound, lucid and dreaming, Ocean Voung’s collection NO travels backward through time and consciousness. His grounding mechanisms illuminate memory in the contexts of seasons and journeys both short and long.…
Night Sky with Exit Wounds
poetry_collection · 2016

Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times writes: “The poems in Mr. Vuong’s new collection, Night Sky With Exit Wounds…possess a tensile precision reminiscent of Emily Dickinson’s work, combined with a Gerard Manley Hopkins-like appreciation…
Time Is a Mother
poetry_collection · 2022

How else do we return to ourselves but to fold The page so it points to the good part In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of personal and social loss, embodying the paradox…

Frequently asked questions about Ocean Vuong

Where was Ocean Vuong born, and how did he come to live in the United States?

Ocean Vuong was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and arrived in the United States with his family as a refugee at age two. He was raised in Hartford, Connecticut.

Sources: oceanvuong.com (opens in a new tab)macfound.org (opens in a new tab)

How does Ocean Vuong describe his identity?

Vuong is a Vietnamese American and queer writer. His work often considers how migration, sexuality, family, and language shape identity.

Sources: poetryfoundation.org (opens in a new tab)macfound.org (opens in a new tab)

What did Ocean Vuong study, and where does he teach?

He earned a BA in nineteenth-century American literature from Brooklyn College and an MFA in poetry from New York University. He teaches modern poetry and poetics in NYU’s MFA program.

Sources: oceanvuong.com (opens in a new tab)macfound.org (opens in a new tab)

What influences Ocean Vuong’s writing?

His writing draws on the Vietnam War, refugee and exile experiences, intergenerational trauma, rural Vietnamese oral storytelling, and experimentation with the English language. Identity and desire are also central concerns.

Source: macfound.org (opens in a new tab)

What major awards has Ocean Vuong received?

His honors include the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize, a Whiting Award, and the 2019 MacArthur Fellowship. The MacArthur Foundation recognized his work as a vital literary voice addressing trauma, exile, identity, and desire.

Sources: tseliot.com (opens in a new tab)oceanvuong.com (opens in a new tab)macfound.org (opens in a new tab)