A Conversation with Author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
March 29, 2023
01:00 PM - 03:00 PM
La Plata Campus, Community Education (CE) Building, Room 101 and Virtual (via Zoom)
Neal Dwyer, nmdwyer@csmd.edu
A Conversation with Author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
March 29 at 1:00 PM
In Person: La Plata Campus, Community Education (CE) Building, Room 101
Virtual: Register Now
Vietnamese author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai will read from and discuss her second novel, “Dust Child,” a suspenseful and moving saga about family secrets, hidden trauma, and the overriding power of forgiveness, set during the war and in present-day Việt Nam.
The novel weaves us into the lives, past and present, of the ostracized, mixed-race children of American soldiers; their mothers compelled by war into prostitution, and their fathers, the G.I.’s who abandoned them and yet remained haunted by them.
Born and raised in Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is the author of the international bestseller “The Mountains Sing,” which was the runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the winner of the 2020 BookBrowse Best Debut Award, the 2021 International Book Awards, the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for Fiction.
She has published 12 books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction in Vietnamese and English and has received some of the top literary prizes in Việt Nam including the Best Poetry Collection of the Year 2010, from the Hà Nội Writers Association.
Her writing has been translated into 20 languages and has appeared in major publications including The New York Times. She has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and was named by Forbes Vietnam as one of 20 inspiring women of 2021.
In a pre-publication review, “Dust Child” was voted A Best Book of the Month in a starred review by Library Journal: “Achingly honest and ultimately hopeful; essential reading for U.S. audiences.”
Author’s website: https://nguyenphanquemai.com/page/the-mountains-sing.html