Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong is the kind of writer who reminds me why language still matters. Born in Ho Chi Minh City in 1988 and raised in the United States, he carries the Vietnamese American immigrant experience into poetry and prose that feels almost unbearably precise. His debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, landed the same year he received a MacArthur Grant, and the recognition didn't stop there: the Whiting Award, the T. S. Eliot Prize, and more. What moves me is that he came up through Brooklyn College, not some gilded path, and turned a hard origin into work of real tenderness. I genuinely admire him.

Name (English)

Ocean Vuong

Name (Japanese)

オーシャン・ヴオン

Reading

おーしゃん・ゔおん

Born

October 14, 1988 (age 37)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Dragon

Origin

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Occupation

poet / writer / essayist / university teacher

High school

Glastonbury High School

University

Brooklyn College

Awards & achievements

• 2016 Whiting Awards
• Kundiman Fellowship
• T. S. Eliot Prize
• 2019 MacArthur Fellows Program
• 2013 Chad Walsh Poetry Prize

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://www.oceanvuong.com
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/ocean_vuong/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3

Tags

• poet
• writer
• essayist

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.