The first and only book to gather the voices and perspectives of Vietnamese diasporic authors from across the globe.

Edited by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Lan P. Duong, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Cleaving brings together Vietnamese artists and writers from around the world in conversation about their craft and how their work has been shaped and received by mainstream culture and their own communities. This collection highlights how Vietnamese diasporic writers speak about having been cleaved—a condition in which they have been separated from, yet still hew to, the country that they have left behind.

Composed of eighteen dialogues among thirty-seven writers from France, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Canada, Australia, Israel, and the United States, the book expands on the many lives that Vietnamese writers inhabit. The dialogues touch on family history, legacies of colonialism and militarism, and the writers' own artistic and literary achievements. Taken together, these conversations insist on a deeper reckoning with the conditions of displacement.

Featured writers: Hoai Huong Aubert-Nguyen, Amy Quan Barry, Doan Bui, Thi Bui, Lan Cao, Cathy Linh Che, André Dao, Duy Đoàn, Lan P. Duong, Dương Vân Mai Elliott, Le Ly Hayslip, Matt Huynh, Violet Kupersmith, Thanhhà Lại, Vincent Lam, T.K. Lê, Tracey Lien, Marcelino Trương Lực , Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, Anna Möi, Beth (Bich) Minh Nguyen, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Hieu Minh Nguyen, Hoa Nguyen, Philip Nguyễn, Thảo Nguyễn, Vaan Nguyen, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Andrew X. Pham, Aimee Phan, Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood, Bao Phi, Dao Strom, Kim Thúy, Paul Tran, Monique Truong, Minh Huynh Vu, Ocean Vuong

About the Author

Isabelle Thuy Pelaud is Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and Cofounder and Executive Director of the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN).

Lan P. Duong is Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California. Her collection of poetry, Nothing Follows, was published in 2023.

Viet Thanh Nguyen is author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel and New York Times bestseller The Sympathizer; its sequel, The Committed; and, most recently, the memoir A Man of Two Faces.

Reviews

"Every dialogue in this anthology shares ache and joy, emotional and intellectual poignancy, a tender agony: for art, for Việt Nam, for place, space, and scale. The Cleaving is an exhibition of what the purest academic scholarship can achieve: art."—Lily Hoàng, Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, University of California, San Diego

“Perhaps The Cleaving’s most significant contribution is in contextualizing the work of these artists as part of a remarkably diverse community, as adept practitioners of craft, and as members of a diaspora whose political orientations toward their former and current homelands do not tidily align. This collection compels recognition of the rich aesthetic and creative aspects of such work beyond ‘ethnography to be harvested,’ to borrow from Ocean Vuong’s conversation with Kim Thúy. Simply riveting—I can’t think of anything comparable.”—Daniel Kim, author of The Intimacies of Conflict: Cultural Memory and the Korean War