In 2023, I was assigned to teach a Gen Ed class, “Texts and Contexts: Literary Studies” at Illinois State University. I decided to organize my syllabus with the texts from refugee literature. During this process of text selection, I got to know Viet Thanh Nguyen. A refugee, scholar, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, and public intellectual, Nguyen’s work challenges readers to reconsider not only what it means to be American, but what it means to remember, to belong, and to write about the displaced.
Born in Vietnam in 1971 and resettled in the United States after the fall of Saigon, Nguyen’s early life was marked by displacement and reinvention. His family’s journey—from war-torn Vietnam to a refugee camp in Pennsylvania, and eventually to a Vietnamese enclave in San Jose, CA—forms the emotional and political bedrock of his literary imagination. In Nguyen’s own words, “All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.” His writing is a testament to this second war.
The Sympathizer (2015) is Nguyen’s debut novel and earned him a name in the American literary circle. It is a spy thriller, a postcolonial critique, and also a reflection on fractured identity. The novel’s narrator, a communist double agent embedded in the South Vietnamese army, offers a biting, often darkly humorous perspective on American imperialism and Vietnamese diaspora. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and made Nguyen almost a celebrity writer.
His follow-up works—The Refugees, The Committed, and Nothing Ever Dies—continue this exploration of memory, trauma, and transnational identity. Among these, I taught a couple of short stories from The Refugees. The collection of short stories was published in 2017. Set in both California and Vietnam, all eight stories investigate relationships, family bonds, refugee identity, and trauma and memory. In each, Nguyen refuses to let the refugee be reduced to a passive victim of violence and war. Instead, he reclaims the refugee as a creator of culture, a witness to history, and a critic of the empire.
As a professor at the University of Southern California, Nguyen teaches English, American Studies, and Comparative Literature. His academic work is as rigorous as his fiction, blending literary theory with cultural critique. He is also a frequent contributor to The New York Times, where he writes on topics ranging from immigration policy to anti-Asian violence.
At a time when refugee crises dominate headlines and xenophobic rhetoric threatens to drown out nuance, Nguyen’s voice is more vital than ever. He reminds us that the refugee is not a problem to be solved, but a perspective to be heard. His memoir, A Man of Two Faces (2024), confronts the mythologies of American exceptionalism and the silences surrounding war, race, and memory.
Nguyen’s work invites us—especially those of us in literary communities—to ask difficult questions:
- Whose stories are we reading?
- Whose histories are we forgetting?
- What does it mean to write ethically in a world shaped by displacement?
For members of Sigma Tau Delta, Nguyen’s writing offers a model of literary engagement that is both personal and political. His prose is lush, his arguments sharp, and his commitment to justice unwavering. He challenges us to think beyond borders—linguistic, national, and disciplinary—and to embrace literature as a space of radical empathy.
In elevating refugee voices, Nguyen does more than tell stories—he reshapes the canon. And in doing so, he reminds us that literature is not just about what we read, but how we remember.
Resources
- “‘Good’ Refugees, ‘Bad’ Refugees: A Conversation in Paris with Viet Thanh Nguyen”
- Viet Thanh Nguyen’s “The Refugees” explores life caught between two worlds
- Viet Thanh Nguyen Interview: The Vietnam War Refugee Experience Behind The Sympathizer | The Thread
- “Refugees in America” by Joyce Carol Oates, a book review of The Refugees
Akbar Hosain
Student Representative, Midwestern Region, 2025-2026
Lambda Delta Chapter
Illinois State University, Normal, IL
Sigma Tau Delta
Sigma Tau Delta, International English Honor Society, was founded in 1924 at Dakota Wesleyan University. The Society strives to
- Confer distinction for high achievement in English language and literature in undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies;
- Provide, through its local chapters, cultural stimulation on college campuses and promote interest in literature and the English language in surrounding communities;
- Foster all aspects of the discipline of English, including literature, language, and writing;
- Promote exemplary character and good fellowship among its members;
- Exhibit high standards of academic excellence; and
- Serve society by fostering literacy.
With over 900 active chapters located in the United States and abroad, there are more than 1,000 Faculty Advisors, and approximately 9,000 members inducted annually.
Sigma Tau Delta also recognizes the accomplishments of professional writers who have contributed to the fields of language and literature.
