17 Facts About Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to a multiracial mother.

Two generations before Vuong was born, his grandmother was raised in the countryside of Vietnam.

Ocean Vuong's grandparents married and had three daughters, one of whom was Vuong's mother.

Ocean Vuong's grandfather had gone back to visit home in the US but was unable to return when Saigon fell to communist forces.

At 18, she had given birth to Ocean Vuong and was working in a Saigon salon, washing men's hair to make ends meet.

Ocean Vuong's father abandoned the family one day and never returned.

Ocean Vuong was the first in his family to achieve proficiency in reading and writing, learning to read at the age of eleven.

At 15 years old, Ocean Vuong worked on a tobacco farm illegally and would later describe his experiences on the farm in On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.

Ocean Vuong was reunited with his paternal grandfather later in life.

Ocean Vuong attended Glastonbury High School in Glastonbury, Connecticut, a school known for academic excellence.

Ocean Vuong's first chapbook, Burnings, was a 2011 "Over The Rainbow" selection for notable books with LGBT content by the American Library Association.

Ocean Vuong regarded the book as a "phantom novel" dedicated to the "phantom readership of the mother, of [his] family," who are illiterate and thus cannot read his book.

Ocean Vuong's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer three months before the publication of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.

Ocean Vuong has stated his view of fiction as a moral vehicle.

In 2022, Ocean Vuong was named as one of "32 Essential Asian American Writers" by BuzzFeed Books.

Ocean Vuong has announced a second novel titled The Emperor of Gladness, expecting a release in May of 2025.

Three months before the novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous was published, Ocean Vuong's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she died in November 2019.