How America Revealed Itself to Ocean Vuong

Novelist and poet, Ocean Vuong, traces his family’s path from Vietnam to a refugee camp in the Philippines to a new life in Connecticut. He reflects on the beauty and the brutality of American fast food, and how long days on a tobacco farm shaped both his writing and his sense of self.

Plus, he shares his family’s recipe for canh chua —a delicious Vietnamese soup that’s less time-intensive than pho ! See Privacy Policy at and California Privacy Notice at .