Viet Nguyen Receives a MacArthur “Genius” Grant

The MacArthur Foundation today announced the twenty-four 2017 recipients of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the so-called “genius” grants. These $625,000 stipends are given with no strings attached to writers, artists, scientists, and other creative people. The august group this year included Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose novel brilliant, Vietnam War-themed novel, The Sympathizer, justly won a ton of awards including the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

As David Willson wrote in his review of the book two years ago in the print edition of The VVA Veteran, Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam, and came here as a young child with his family. He teaches English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. His other books include Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction) and the short story collection, The Refugees.

Those excellent stories, VVA Veteran Arts Editor Marc Leepson wrote in his review in March/April 2017 issue of the magazine, “brilliantly illuminate the inner lives of Vietnamese people as we read about them in eight well-crafted tales centered on refugees from the former South Vietnam (and their offspring) who wind up living in California.”

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