Late Night Debut, hosted by Amber Keller
This month we feature Ocean Vuong’s debut poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, published by Copper Canyon Press. Li-Young Lee says, “What a treasure [Ocean Vuong] is to us. What perfume he’s crushed and rendered of his heart and soul. What a gift this book is.” 
Act 1: Host Amber Keller covers entertaining book culture news and cool new debuts
Act 2: Mahogany Browne and Paul Tran discuss Ocean Vuong’s debut
Act 3: Paul Tran speaks with Ocean Vuong about naming and renaming, the grotesque, dismantling the hierarchy of exotification, and exit wounds

 
Purchase Night Sky with Exit Wounds from Copper Canyon Press
 
GIVEAWAY: WIN A FREE COPY OF VUONG’S DEBUT.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE FOR DETAILS, THEN EMAIL
AMBER@LATENIGHTLIBRARY.ORG BY
MIDNIGHT ON MAY 1.
ABOUT OUR FEATURED AUTHOR:
Ocean Vuong is the author of Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press, 2016). A 2014 Ruth Lilly fellow, he has received honors from The Civitella Ranieri Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, Narrative magazine, and a Pushcart Prize. His poems have been featured in the Kenyon Review, GRANTA, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Poetry, and American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he lives in New York City.
ABOUT OUR CO-HOSTS:

Both a Cave Canem & Poets House alum, Mahogany L. Browne is the Poetry Program Director of the Nuyorican Poets Café, MFA Candidate for writing & activism at Pratt Institute, and an activist, publisher & educator. Browne is the founder of the Women Writers of Color Reading Room & the author of the books Dear Twitter (Penmanship), Smudge (Button Poetry) & the NAACP-Nominated Redbone (Willow Books). 
 
 
Paul Tran is currently the 10th ranked slam poet in the world. His Pushcart Prize-nominated work appears in Prairie Schooner, The Offing, RHINO and elsewhere. You can find him at iampaultran.com or on Twitter & IG @speakdeadly.
 
 

The following conversation took place between Paul Tran and Ocean Vuong in the studio as part of the Act 3 recording. You can listen to it in Vietnamese at the end of the podcast. This translation was provided by Paul, about which he says, “The immeasurable honor having and translating this interview in Vietnamese, as well as the spelling and grammar mistakes here, is mine.”

Paul Tran: I’m here with my brother poet, Ocean Vuong, to celebrate the release of Night Sky With Exit Wounds from Copper Canyon (2016).
Anh, oi.
My brother.
Ocean Vuong: Hello.
PT: Em rất thương và rất mãn nguyện để gặp Anh trong đời này và rất hãnh diện để cầm cuốn sách đầu tiên của Anh trong tay Em. Cảm ơn cho mỗi bài thơ trong cuốn sách này. Mỗi bài thơ của Anh cứu đời Em. Hằng ngày Em cầu nguyện một ngày mình sẽ về lại cực lạc.
I love you, and I’m fortunate to meet you in this life, and to hold your debut book in my hands. Thank you for each poem in this collection. Each poem rescued my life. Every day I pray we’ll soon return home to paradise.
OV: Troi, oi. Chưa gì hết mà làm muốn khóc rồi.
My heavens. We haven’t even started, and I already want to cry.
PT: Đừng lo. Minh sẽ khóc nửa.
Don’t worry. We’ll cry more after this.
OV: Anh rất là cám ơn Em. Làm một cuộc đời người viết văn rất là khó. Gia đình mình—gia đình Anh thì không đọc được thơ thì mình kể chuyện của gia đình,