This archive consists of oral histories of Diasporic Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian writers, poets and artists.
About the Archive
Beginning in Fall 2025, this oral history archive emerges from a genealogy of community-based projects that seek to address the historical absence of diasporic Southeast Asian writers and poets in archival collections.
Oral histories create opportunities for students to guide the interview process while enabling writers and poets to share and preserve their stories. Each entry in the archive includes a video recording of the interview, along with a summary and a full transcript.
How to Use This Archive
This archive is designed for public access and can be used in a variety of ways:
- Students may explore these oral histories for research projects, class assignments, or personal curiosity. The archive offers firsthand accounts that can support critical analysis, inspire research questions, and deepen understanding of diasporic experiences and creative practices.
- Educators may incorporate these oral histories into their teaching, assigning them as texts or integrating them into lesson plans.
- Researchers and scholars may draw on these materials for academic work, particularly in Asian American Studies, English, and American Studies.
- Curators, artists, and producers may use the interviews in creative and digital projects, including social media, films, and podcasts.
Citation: Please credit “DVAN@SFSU Oral History Archive.”
Acknowledgments
This archive would not be possible without the labor and care of many contributors. We thank the students of AAS 210: History of Asians in the United States for conducting the oral histories, and the diasporic Southeast Asian writers and poets for generously sharing their time and stories.
Contact
For questions or more information, please contact:
- Dr. Isabelle Thuy Pelaud — ipelaud@sfsu.edu
- Dr. Chrissy Yee Lau — chrissylau@sfsu.edu
2025-2026 : Writers & Poets from The Cleaving.
In the 2025–2026 academic year, the archive begins with writers and poets featured in The Cleaving: Diasporic Vietnamese Writers in the Diaspora, edited by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Lan Duong, and Viet Thanh Nguyen. Published by UC Press in April 2025 to commemorate the end of the Vietnam War, the book brings together Vietnamese artists and writers from around the world in conversation about their craft. The contributors also reflect on how their work has been shaped by, and received within, both mainstream culture and their own communities. The collection highlights the idea of being “cleaved,” a condition in which diasporic writers are separated from, yet still connected to, the country they have left behind.
Biography
André Dao is an author and researcher based in Melbourne, Australia, and a postdoctoral research fellow with the Laureate Program in Global Corporations and International Law at Melbourne Law School. He is the co-founder of Behind the Wire, an oral history project documenting stories of people detained by Australian government, and the deputy editor of New Philoso-pher, a magazine exploring solutions to fundamental human problems André debuted with Anam in 2024, a fiction novel inspired by his quest to discover his family history. His grandfather had been imprisoned in French-ruled Vietnam in 1975, with his grandmother and their kids emigrating to Paris, and his mother and father settled in Australia before he was born. André spent most of his life in Australia since birth, and while not a refugee himself, has faced the struggling feeling of not belonging to a country.
Thematic Overview
In the interview, André Dao discusses the migration background of his family and his motivation to search for his family history, citing a document. Following feelings of shame, he was inspired to become a serious writer, raising challenges such as seeing his work as literary writing or sharing ideas before they were fully synthesized. He also notes the weight of publisher expectations, and the value of finding his voice and connecting with others, before leading into his experience with publishers and Vietnamese diaspora communities, physically and digitally. André addresses how his identity has been influenced by other countries, and the meaning of “home” whilst uncertain of how he identifies. Particularly, André delves into greater detail on Behind the Wire and Anam, speaking about his motivations and their processes, concluding with the feelings that he hopes for others to experience in engaging with such media.
Biography
Cathy Linh Che is a writer and multidisciplinary artist. She is the author of Becoming Ghost (Washington Square Press, 2025), a Finalist for the National Book Award, Split (Alice James Books) and co-author of the children’s book An Asian American A to Z: a Children’s Guide to Our History (Haymarket Books). Her video installation Appocalips is an Open Call commission with The Shed NY, and her film We Were the Scenery won the Short Film Jury Award: Nonfiction at the Sundance Film Festival. She teaches as Core Faculty in Poetry at the low residency MFA program in Creative Writing at Antioch University in Los Angeles and works as Executive Director at Kundiman. She lives in New York City.
Thematic Overview
The interview begins (00:00) with a discussion on what inspired Cathy Linh Che to be a writer which leads to her describing her family’s refugee story (1:03) and how it affected her parents. Later, (6:00) she talks about the different types of community organizations she is a part of, like Kundiman and DVAN. Cathy then illustrates her experiences growing up in LA (8:30) compared to now in New York, and the differences in environment. This leads to her reflecting on her works (15:35) such as Asian American A to Z, Split, Becoming Ghost, and We Were the Scenery and what they mean to her and what she hopes audiences can take away from it. Towards the end of the interview, (27:30) Cathy gives advice for young poets and how you can use art to express yourself.
Biography
Monique Truong is a Vietnamese American novelist. She’s also an essayist, lyricist/librettist, and intellectual property attorney. Truong is the author of the bestselling, award-winning novels The Book of Salt, Bitter in the Mouth, and The Sweetest Fruits and the co-author of the children’s picture book Mai’s Áo Dài. She’s a co-editor of the anthology Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry & Prose.
Thematic Overview
(0:00) In the first part of the interview, Monique Truong discusses her family’s migration story. She explains that she was born in South Vietnam and came to the United States as a refugee in 1975, just before the fall of Saigon. She talks about staying at Camp Pendleton in California and how that moment marked the beginning of her life in the U.S. (5:00) Monique explains how migration affected her language and writing. She talks about learning English at a young age, mainly through television, and how switching languages made her more conscious of words. This experience influenced how she approaches writing and self-expression. (10:00) The conversation focuses on the challenges she faced as an Asian American and Vietnamese American writer. She explains how the publishing industry had narrow expectations and how her work did not always fit the stereotypes people expected, even though her book later became successful. (15:00) Monique talks about the impact of COVID-19. She explains that while the pandemic increased anti-Asian hate, it also gave her space to reflect creatively. During this time, she explored new genres and wrote a children’s book, something she had not planned to do before. In the final part of the interview (20:00), Monique reflects on what writing means to her personally. She talks about the magic of storytelling, connecting with readers, inspiration from other writers and everyday life, family influence, and why she left law to become a writer. She emphasizes creative freedom and the deep fulfillment writing gives her.
Biography
Hoa Nguyen is a Vietnamese American poet born in 1967 in Vĩnh Long who grew up in the United States after leaving Vietnam as a child, an experience that shapes much of her literary voice and thematic focus. Raised in the Washington D.C. area, she studied at the New College of California where she earned her MFA in creative writing and later became an influential teacher and mentor in various community-based poetry programs. Now in Canada, she continues her work as a writer and educator while engaging with Vietnamese diasporic communities and conversations about cultural inheritance. Her oral history often focuses on themes of displacement, hybrid identity, and the ways personal and collective histories intersect through language.
Thematic Overview
In this interview, Hoa Nguyen discusses how her early love of storytelling and the musicality of poetry shaped her lifelong commitment to writing. She reflects on her family’s migration from Vietnam, her mother’s journey from farm life to circus performer, and their eventual settlement near Washington, DC, where assimilation brought both opportunity and isolation. Nguyen describes growing up mixed race without a Vietnamese community and how this sense of disconnection later informed her return trips to Vietnam. She also recounts finding cultural and artistic belonging through work with Vietnamese youth in San Francisco and through co-founding the poetry journal Skanky Possum, which emphasized community-driven literary practices. She also explains how losing her first language influences her poetry, her ongoing role as a mentor, and her collaborative work with the Vietnamese women’s collective She Who Has No Masters.
Biography
Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood is a Vietnamese and American author who lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and daughter. She was born in Vietnam and lived there until the age of 12. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Columbia University and is currently serving on the graduating thesis committee at Columbia University. Furthermore, she also works as a mentor for ‘She Who Has No Master(s) (SWHNM), a collective of womxn and nonbinary writers of Vietnamese diaspora. Additionally, she has two novels. One being her debut novel, “If I Had Two Lives,” which has been known as ‘a tale of staggering artistry.’ Lastly, her second novel, “Constellations of Eve” which portrays a philosophical fable of art and fate. She is a scholar of Asian American history and literature as well as Pulitzer winner in promoting Vietnamese American literature.
Thematic Overview
Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood first talks a bit about her migration story as well as sharing a bit of her family's migration story(00:00). She talks about her journey as a writer as well as factors that influenced her(15:00). Abbigail also talked about how memory and language have shaped her writing as well as sharing aspects of being bilingual(30:00). She shares community work she has participated in and her efforts to help her community as well as other writers(45:00). Lastly Abbigail continues to talk about her experience as a Southeast Asian writer in the U.S. publishing industry; both the good and bad and how culture has influenced her writing(60:00).
Biography
Marcelino Truong Luc was born in 1957 in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. He is the son of a Vietnamese diplomat for the Republic of Vietnam and a French mother. His family moved to the United States and later to Vietnam during his childhood. He eventually settled in France, where he earned degrees in law at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and English literature. He is an illustrator and painter. He is also the author of the graphic memoir, Such a Lovely Little War, which blends his childhood experiences with the larger history of the Vietnam War. His sequel, Saigon Calling, continues this story and explores his life growing up between different cultures. His work focuses on themes of family, war, displacement, and mixed-race identity.
Thematic Overview
In the first part of the interview (00:00 to 10:00), Marcelino shares his family’s migration story, including his father’s journey from Vietnam to France, his parents' meeting in Paris, and the family’s moves for his father’s diplomatic work. Marcelino spent his childhood in Manila, the United States, Saigon, and London. In the second part (10:00 to 20:00), he describes how he gradually shifted from illustration to writing, the years of practice it took to feel confident, and the risks of creating long graphic novels. In the third part (20:00 to about 37:02), he talks about the challenges of being a Southeast Asian and mixed Vietnamese artist, such as not being taken seriously, facing racism and condescension, and his frustration with how people in France discuss the Vietnam War and politics without firsthand experience. The fourth part (37:02 to about 42:56) focuses on what he finds meaningful about being an artist and writer, including the loneliness of the work, the satisfaction of creating something beautiful, and his view that artists are not more important than people in other jobs. In the final part (43:18 to the end at about 1:11:45), Marcelino discusses how he hopes readers will respond to his books, the challenges of being published and translated, his thoughts on future projects and why he has stepped back from another large graphic novel, and he ends by giving practical advice about the risks of an artistic career and the need to find a sustainable path.
Biography
Aimee Phan was born and raised in Orange County, California. She received her BA in English from UCLA and her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the author of two books for adults, We Should Never Meet: Stories and the novel The Reeducation of Cherry Truong. She has received fellowships and residencies from the NEA, MacDowell Colony, the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, Djerassi and Hedgebrook. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Time, USA Today and CNN.com, among other publications. Aimee teaches as an associate professor in writing and literature at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and resides in Berkeley, California with her family.
Thematic Overview
(0:00) Aimee Phan opens with her and her family’s migration story before transitioning to how her love of books and ample time spent in the library growing up sparked an interest in writing (3:00). She discusses the barriers to Southeast Asian writers in the U.S. and how these barriers are slowly being chipped away as Southeast Asian writers expand into more genres (5:00). This is followed by talks of how her parents paved the way for her to focus on writing as a career by creating a strong family network. Phan expands on her love of writing and how writing helps her make sense of the world (6:00). She introduces her role as a board member of the Diasporic Vietnamese Artist Network (DVAN) non-profit, highlighting the mission of spreading awareness and access to the works of Vietnamese authors, including herself (12:00). She then expands on her profession as a college professor of creative writing and literature and how her work allows her to do the job she loves through teaching writing (14:00). Phan ends the interview by discussing her family’s stories, emphasizing that a large reason she was drawn to writing was because it was an avenue to immortalize the experiences of her family so they would never be forgotten (18:00).
Biography
Amy Quan Barry was born in 1973 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is now a 52-year-old. She is a biracial transnational adoptee who was raised in Boston by a diverse family in the White suburbs. Barry is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as an acclaimed author who has written several novels. Throughout her life, Barry has navigated diversity in education and society through race and identity. She has been involved in promoting diverse and underrepresented voices in literature.
Thematic Overview
The interview with Amy Quan Barry, recorded on December 4, 2025, covers five major themes reflecting her life, identity, and creative journey as writer. In the first part (00:00-05:00), Barry discusses her personal background and identity as a biracial, transnational adoptee from Vietnam who grew up in a predominantly White Massachusetts town, describing both challenges and acceptance in her family and community. The second part (05:00-10:00) focuses on her cultural upbringing and perspective, explaining how being raised in an Irish German household influenced her understanding of culture and how her diverse identity informs her wing across multiple communities. The third part (10:00-15:00) explores her career as a writer and professor, including her early inspirations, her love of revising over drafting, and her experience teaching creative writing while adapting to changes in academia, AI, and post-pandemic learning. In the fourth part (20:00-25:00), the discussion centers on her community involvement and writing challenges, particularly her limited engagement with networks like DVAN, difficulties with publishing representation, and perceptions about marketability for writers of color. Lastly, the fifth part (25:00-30:00) highlights Barry’s views on diversity in literature, advice for young writers, and future goals, where she encourages authenticity in storytelling and expresses her desire to expand into playwriting and theater work later in her career.
Biography
Thanhhà Lại, born in 1965 in Saigon, Vietnam, is a Vietnamese-American author. After fleeing Vietnam as a refugee with her family at the end of the war in 1975, she grew up in Alabama, where the challenges of adapting to a new language and culture deeply influenced her later work. Lại studied journalism at the University of Texas and earned an MFA in creative writing from New York University, eventually becoming a writer and educator. Best known for her National Book Award-winning novel Inside Out & Back Again, she uses her storytelling to highlight the experiences of refugees and immigrant families.
Thematic Overview
The interview begins (00:00) with Thanhhà Lại discussing her experience as a Southeast Asian writer. (06:22) She then goes on to talk about her outlook on what her lifestyle is like and how Asian hate during the pandemic affected her. (7:34) Lại briefly mentions her non-profit organization, Viet Kids Inc., (8:00) and then discusses her renowned novel, Inside Out & Back Again. (10:12) Lại then talks about adapting to America as a Vietnam War refugee (00:12:27) and how her way of thinking does not align with how most people think.