ADA, Okla. 鈥� Author Vu Tran has been announced as the featured speaker for Vietnam (is not): 50, an event organized by the East Central University Honors Program and paid for by a grant from the Ross-Osborn Family Foundation.
Vietnam (is not): 50 is scheduled to take place Oct. 23 from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. inside the Bill S. Cole University Center.
Tran was born in Vietnam and was raised in Oklahoma. He is a graduate of the University of Tulsa where he earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Master of Arts (M.A.) in English. He also earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from the Iowa Writers鈥� Workshop before completing his Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Practice in the Arts at the University of Chicago where he teaches English and Creative Writing.
His book, 鈥淒ragonfish,鈥� is a New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Books of the Year honoree that Tran describes as a, 鈥渓iterary noir that follows a white police officer鈥檚 search in Las Vegas for his ex-wife, a troubled Vietnamese woman who escaped their marriage, has now vanished from an abusive new husband, and is secretly writing letters to the daughter she abandoned two decades ago, when they first came to the US as refugees from Vietnam.鈥�
For Vietnam (is not): 50, Tran will read from his forthcoming book, 鈥淵our Origins,鈥� which he says, 鈥渄raws on the tropes of the gothic romance鈥攁 failed writer recounts the three mysteries of his life: the circumstances that left him orphaned during the war in Vietnam; the uncommunicative white nurse who becomes his mother and raises him in Oklahoma; and following her sudden death, the young half-Vietnamese widow he meets after college, whose story of recent tragedy echoes his own and tells of a place where one can glimpse the life they might have lived had tragedy never befallen them.鈥�
Tran鈥檚 writing has also appeared in the O. Henry Prize Stories, the Best American Mystery Stories, Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly, and McSweeney鈥檚. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers鈥� Award and fellowships from the NEA, MacDowell, Yaddo, Bread Loaf, and Sewanee.
The Vietnam (is not): 50 full-day event will serve as a way to educate 成人B站 students and the local communities on the Vietnam War and the country itself, with an emphasis on the history and culture of Vietnam beyond the war, 鈥渨e鈥檙e calling it 鈥榁ietnam (is not): 50鈥� because we want to emphasize that Vietnam itself is not a war,鈥� said Director of the 成人B站 Honors Program, Dr. Steve Benton.
Lectures will be delivered by 成人B站 faculty and other professionals from the perspectives of history, English, film studies, philosophy, political science and art, along with performances by 成人B站 music faculty and students.
This will be a come-and-go event with sessions beginning at 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 7 p.m. and a film screening for the 2024 Vietnamese film 鈥淢ai鈥� starting at 2 p.m.
The evening will culminate with Tran鈥檚 reading from 鈥淵our Origins.鈥�
Door prizes will also be awarded at the event, including $500 Study Abroad vouchers for 成人B站 students.
For more information on Vietnam (is not): 50, contact Director of the 成人B站 Honors Program, Dr. Steve Benton at sbenton@ecok.edu or call 580-559-5877.
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