Every year since 2021, the Tulane University School of Liberal Arts’ Carole Barnette Boudreaux ’65 Great Writers Series has brought an internationally prominent writer to New Orleans for readings, lectures, events and panels. This fall, that author is Ocean Vuong.
Writer, professor, and photographer, Ocean Vuong is the author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, winner of the American Book Award, The Mark Twain Award, and The New England Book Award. The novel debuted for six weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and has since sold more than a million copies in 40 languages. A nominee for the National Book Award and a recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Vuong is also the author of the poetry collections, Time is a Mother, a finalist for the Griffin prize, and Night Sky with Exit Wounds, a New York Times Top 10 Book, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award. His latest novel, The Emperor of Gladness, is an instant New York Times bestseller and Oprah’s Book Club Pick. A Ruth Lilly fellow from the Poetry Foundation, his honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, and the Pushcart Prize.
Selected by Foreign Policy magazine as one of its 100 Leading Global Thinkers, Vuong’s writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Granta, Harpers, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Village Voice, and American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Hartford, Connecticut in a working class family of nail salon and factory laborers, he was educated at nearby Manchester Community College before transferring to Pace University to study International Marketing. Without completing his first term, he dropped out and enrolled at Brooklyn College, where he graduated with a BA in Nineteenth Century American Literature. He subsequently received his MFA in Poetry from NYU.
He currently splits his time between Northampton, Massachusetts and New York City, where he serves as a Professor in Modern Poetry and Poetics in the MFA Program at NYU.
Vuong will give a public talk on Thursday, November 19, at 6pm at Tulane University in the Lavin-Bernick Center’s Kendall Cram Ballroom.
Leading up to the talk, the Library is delighted to partner with Tulane University School of Liberal Arts to explore Vuong’s writing with our community.
Karisma Price leads this poetry workshop grounded in the work of Ocean Vuong. Read examples of Vuong’s poetry and engage in generative exercises to develop your own poems. Open to adult writers of all skill levels.
Memory and Tenderness takes place Saturday, November 07, 1:30pm – 3:30pm, at Norman Mayer Library.
Karisma Price is an Assistant Professor of English at Tulane University. A poet, screenwriter, and media artist, she is also the author of I’m Always So Serious (Sarabande Books, 2023). Karisma’s work has appeared in publications including Poetry, Indiana Review, Four Way Review, wildness, and Adroit Journal. She is a Cave Canem Fellow, was a finalist for the 2019 Manchester Poetry Prize, and was awarded the 2020 J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize from the Poetry Foundation. A native New Orleanian, she holds an MFA in poetry from New York University, where she was a Writers in the Public Schools Fellow.
In partnership with Tulane University School of Liberal Arts.
Inspired by Ocean Vuong’s explorations of memory, migration, and intergenerational storytelling, this program invites participants to consider how Vietnamese American experiences become part of the shared history of a community. Journalist and Tulane professor Daniella Zalcman and Sông Community Development Corporation lead this event about developing community-driven histories.
Building a Community Timeline takes place Thursday, November 12, 5pm – 6pm, at East New Orleans Regional Library.
In Partnership with Tulane University School of Liberal Arts and Sông Community Development Corporation.
Every year since 2021, the Tulane University School of Liberal Arts’ Carole Barnette Boudreaux ’65 Great Writers Series has brought an internationally prominent writer to New Orleans for readings, lectures, events and panels. This fall, that author is Ocean Vuong.
The New Orleans Public Library cut the ribbon at the Children’s Resource Center on Saturday (Oct. 3), unveiling a newly renovated space dedicated to supporting early learners and their caregivers.
Break out your pumpkins and don your witch hats, it’s that time of year again. From scary stories to creepy crafts, eerie eats, and more, the New Orleans Public Library has everything you need to make the most of spooky season.