Yearly Archives: 2020

And through it all, we continue to build. We build communities, we make art, we tell stories. Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diasporic culture makers continue to work. We work because what we make is important.

Socio-cultural, literary, and political news and events relating to the Vietnamese diaspora and to Việt Nam.

Bạn Bè is an homage to friendships, my family who are my best friends, my community, and my future pals I’ll make along the way as I continue to spread Việt love by way of not-too-sweet sweets here in New York City, and beyond.

It never stops delighting me to see an East Asian-inspired fantasy work—especially when it comes in a package as tightly woven as The Empress of Salt and Fortune.

DVAN is excited to announce the launch of a new literary publishing series in partnership with Texas Tech University Press to support talented Vietnamese and Southeast Asian American writers.

When I met Cara, I was at the bar and lounge on Thursday night, choking on a chunk of grilled cheese sandwich. Cara ran up behind me and performed the Heimlich maneuver, as I vomited on her purse, cheese staining the stitching on the red leather. “You saved me,” I said, catching my breath.

Growing up, our family would never go away on holidays. Dinner in the food court was one thing that made me feel like our family did things together. It was a treat we could look forward to.

Our identities as queer and trans Vietnamese people call that we fight for liberation. From our ancestors the Trưng sisters who led the first resistance movement against occupying Chinese in Vietnam to our parents who managed to create homes, build businesses, and send their kids to college after leaving their homeland with nothing.

December dragged its slow funeral into the father’s
blue-blur hands. Car swerved past wind-torn highways,
through the family’s tunnels of hearts. The grandfather
pressed his head against car’s window. Anesthesia, early doses.

Phan Nhiên Hạo reminds us that one does not have to write in English in order to be an American poet, nor does one have to publish in Vietnam in order to be a Vietnamese poet.