Viet Thanh Nguyen is the author of "The Committed," which continues the story of "The Sympathizer," awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, alongside seven other prizes. He is also the author of the short story collection "The Refugees;" the nonfiction book "Nothing Ever Dies," a finalist for the National Book Award; and is the editor of an anthology of refugee writing, "The Displaced." He is the Aerol Arnold Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations.
With insight, humor, formal invention, and lyricism, in "A Man of Two Faces" Viet Thanh Nguyen rewinds the film of his own life. He expands the genre of personal memoir by acknowledging larger stories of refugeehood, colonization, and ideas about Vietnam and America, writing with his trademark sardonic wit and incisive analysis, as well as a deep emotional openness about his life as a father and a son.
This interview was recorded on October 4.
