diaCRITICS

21/02/2024

Kimberly Nguyen’s words are a punch in the gut, an inspiration, and an evocation of nostalgia, grief, pain, and hope—all at once.

Kimberly Nguyen’s words are a punch in the gut, an inspiration, and an evocation of nostalgia, grief, pain, and hope—all at once. Her poems navigate the complexities of life through many lenses: history of the war torn homeland, the journey to reclaiming and preserving the mother language, growi...

16/02/2024

"Giữa Hai Giòng Sông/Between Two Rivers/Entre deux rivière" is the first retrospective of An-My Lê’s three-decade career by a major American museum.

Review of photographer An-My Le's 2024 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.

16/02/2024

The uncomfortable feelings and experiences that we face as the children of Vietnamese refugees are encapsulated in Owner of a Lonely Heart, a memoir lodged in Beth Nguyen’s experience as a Vietnamese American.

The uncomfortable feelings and experiences that we face as the children of Vietnamese refugees are encapsulated in Owner of a Lonely Heart, a memoir lodged in Beth Nguyen’s experience as a Vietnamese American. A sense of finality spans her book, accenting events like when our parents left Vietnam,...

08/02/2024

"But I thought, this is it – one generation has gone silent and my kids are never going to know all the stories of their ancestors if I don’t put it down."

It took more than a decade of writing, researching, rewriting and rewriting, but now it’s all there in black and white.

05/02/2024

A collective poem by the cohort for the DVAN-Luce Global Collective Residency for Women & Nonbinary Writers.

at the witching hour, I grieve for the alternative life my mother never lived

31/01/2024

Read a short story by the late Phùng Nguyễn, newly translated by Thuy Dinh.

A story by Phung Nguyen, translated by Thuy Dinh.

25/01/2024

A new poem by Julia Ongking.

i think back to the iridescence of the reefs under this part of the sea

19/01/2024

Trading her city life for the wild, Sophie Hieu sets on an unexpected journey into the wilderness in this excerpt from her memoir, "Project Destiny."

An excerpt from Project Destiny: A journey of empowerment through nature by Sophie Hieu, a story of hope, healing, and empowerment in the hands of nature.

17/01/2024

In September, the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) and ICI Vietnam put together an event that brought 10 diasporic Vietnamese authors together into 3 panels of conversation in Paris, France. The event was the culmination of DVAN’s recent two-week long writing residency in Cazilhac, France.

“I really joined this residency to meet other authors from different cultural environments. …We talked, we listened, we engaged in dialogues,” Aubert-Nguyen said. “It helped me better understand their narrative styles, their esthetics, their oeuvres. Because we talked a lot about literature,...

10/01/2024

A new poem by Thi Nguyen.

You’re never alone when you look in the mirror.

03/01/2024

"Đức was our mentor, our friend, the person who always showed up and welcomed us."

Radio broadcaster, writer, editor, and translator Nguyễn Quí Đức passed in November 2023.

01/12/2023

"It was diverse and a lot of strong women were represented. There is no other event in Germany that I have been to that I can compare it with."

28/11/2023

Giving Tuesday is TODAY! For nearly 20 years, DVAN has uplifted Vietnamese and Southeast Asian American writers through public events, publications, workshops, and residencies. Consider donating today! https://dvan.org/donate/

DVAN supports Vietnamese & SEA diasporic writers/artists through events, publication, & residencies.

27/11/2023

Cameron Walker talks with Tuan Phan about his memoir "Remembering Water."

I think writing and reading and engagement with language all go together.

17/11/2023

2023 saw Vietnamese diasporic art exhibits in the UK, Slovakia, and Australia.

It wasn’t just about showcasing writers and artists but it was also about acknowledging the history that comes before us.

14/11/2023

A significant body of Southeast Asian Chinese American work was produced—not by U.S.-born authors or professional émigrés— but by refugees from the Indochina wars.

Deeply sensitive to the repercussions of history on the present day, Southeast Asian Chinese American literature draws on the pluralism of Southeast Asia to explore how colonial and Cold War experiences play out in subsequent generations.

01/11/2023

"Remember when we used to go to the Popeyes in Arlington after the cemetery and split a family combo?"

Remember when we used to go to the Popeyes in Arlington after the cemetery and split a family combo?

31/10/2023

The latest news from Vietnam and the diaspora.

News from Vietnamese Abroad and from Việt Nam ►‘Severely punished’: Vietnam environmental activists face crackdown ►Vietnam: The Challenges of Investing in Social Good ►Vietnam calls for end to acts of violence, avoiding casualties for civilians in Gaza Strip ►Court orders Chinese, Kor...

27/10/2023

"The image of us walking away from the school–your accompanying me home moves me, but I’m not sure why. Perhaps because my adult self knows how with retrospection–how meaningful it was to have someone who looked like me/my family members–to spend time with me in a kind way."

The image of us walking away from the school–your accompanying me home moves me, but I’m not sure why. Perhaps because my adult self knows how with retrospection–how meaningful it was to have someone who looked like me/my family members–to spend time with me in a kind way.

23/10/2023

"Lấy bối cảnh của năm 1980 Song Lang là một bộ phim nghiêm túc và hoài cổ mô tả sự phong phú và bi kịch của cải lương, xuất hiện trong thời kỳ Pháp, và mối quan hệ thân thiết và tình cảm giữa Dũng, một người đòi nợ thuê, và Linh Phụng, một người nghệ sĩ cải lương đến từ một cộng đồng cải lương đang gặp khó khăn."

Tuy là trích dẫn này có một chút sến (mượn từ của đạo diễn bộ phim, Leon Lê, trong cuộc phỏng vấn với Columbia University) tôi cho rằng du hành vượt thời gian là phương pháp mà Song Lang miêu tả cách thức vấn đề giới tính ở Việt Nam t...

29/09/2023

"Higher Ed sucks me in with its charm of community: a walkable environment, access to friendship, and the promise of learning."

It is way too early for this. And by “this,” I mean “Girl on Fire” blasting through conference speakers as multiple women flitter around scooping shiny confetti from little baskets and sprinkling them onto white tablecloths. While my daily coffee intake to prevent caffeine headaches does not...

26/09/2023

Only a few more days to reach our goal to ensure the future of diaCRITICS. Donate if you can and spread the word!

diaCRITICS, one of the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diasporic liter… Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network needs your support for diaCRITICS Needs You

22/09/2023

Melvin’s novel is an ambitious book that not only portrays the uncertain, heart-breaking experiences living in an unstable and violent society, but also explores a nuanced sisterhood tainted by romantic rivalry.

Siblinghood is an intriguing thing: there could hardly be anyone in the world closer to a person than their sibling, but at the same time, the same world and circumstances can look so differently from each sibling’s perspective. The winner of the 2019 National Book Award for fiction, The Betrayed ...

13/09/2023

"Drain and rinse again. I’ve been told to repeat this until everything is clear or less murky."

Drain and rinse again. I’ve been told to repeat this until everything is clear or less murky.

12/09/2023

Nao’s poetry generally tackles difficult themes with a graceful mastery of words and style. "My Yellow Heart" is no different.

Zuihitsu, “lists built to cause surprise through a mix of surprise and variety,” are the cornerstone of Vi Khi Nao’s latest poetry collection My Yellow Heart. Prefaced by a copy of a blast email sent towards the end of March 2022, the collection is framed as an elongated response to a prompt. ...

01/09/2023

The book is a dynamic, tender reckoning with what it means to honor the ancestors we come from and the children and “not-children” we will leave behind us.

Tender Machines, J. Mae Barizo’s second full-length poetry collection, begins with the epigraph from Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar that tenderness is what women see in other women that they don’t see in a man. This book is for women, in all their roles and royalties—daughter, friend, lover, mother...

31/08/2023

✨some news ✨ She Who Has No Master(s) is one of 10 finalists for the 2023 Gold Futures Challenge (IG ), a philanthropy initiative supporting AAPI grassroots organizations, hosted by Asian American Futures & Gold House. We are so thrilled to have the opportunity to be awarded the program’s grand prize of $100k (!!!), which will fund our collective’s artistic + community work. ✨We would love your support—all you have to do is VOTE FOR US ONLINE at:

goldfutureschallenge.org/vote

🌷This voting period is open until 9/26/23 🌷 & we’ll be making some posts in the coming weeks to share about SWHNM’s collective work & our members. Thank you for your support !

You can also learn more about all the orgs in the finalists running here: https://goldfutureschallenge.org/2023-winners/

*more about our collective:

SWHNM centers creativity and care for Vietnamese and SE Asian diasporic womxn and nonbinary writers and artists through engaging in collaborative writing and art processes, and creating opportunities for cross-diasporic relationship-building. As a collective of Vietnamese and SE Asian writers, poets, performers, and scholars engaging with questions of diaspora, marginality, and refugee-immigrant subjectivity, we use our collaborative artistic practice to enact a poetics of engagement and a community of repair and possibility.

💛✨💛✨💛

IG:
shewhohasnomasters.com

31/08/2023

The latest news from Vietnam and the diaspora.

News from Việt Nam and from Vietnamese Abroad ►Vietnam beat Indonesia on penalty shootout to win AFF U23 Championship ►Job-seeking Vietnamese teens trafficked to Laos, family members say ►NewJeans may not be permitted to perform in Vietnam ►Vietnam Internet giant files to be first tech fir...

25/08/2023

Congrats to Vietnamese diasporic writer Lily Fierro on being nominated for the Ignatz Award, the premier award for independent comics. Vote here: https://www.smallpressexpo.com/ignatz-ballot-request/

18/08/2023

"I sprawl over the couch
halving my body in spaces
of this poem"

The house is golden / all the way through / rumbling with soft hums / of a neighbor’s mower / I sprawl over the couch / halving my body in spaces / of this poem