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 American Book Award and the MacArthur “Genius Grant," he has also worked as a line cook, tobacco harvester, nursing home volunteer, and fast-food server, the latter becoming inspiration for The Emperor of Gladness. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently splits his time between Northampton, Massachusetts and New York City.
Ocean Vuong writes like his name, Ocean. His writing alternates between soothing, crashing, warmth, and cold. It can toss you about so that you don't know where you will end up. Yet it can cradle you with a comfort that you sense could shift at any moment. Like all great literary fiction, he expands empathy and compassion for unfamiliar yearnings and trauma.