Trần Dần
TRẦN DẦN (1926-1997) was an influential Vietnamese poet and writer known for revolutionizing Vietnamese poetry through his innovations in both form and ideology. Though many of his works faced censorship and banning from 1960-1990, Trần Dần persevered in his literary pursuit throughout his life. The origins of Crossroads and Lampposts can be traced back to a project sponsored by the Hanoi Police Department in the early 1960s. The handwritten manuscript was completed in 1966 and submitted to the Police Department for review. It was returned to Trần Dần 22 years later, in 1988, but remained unpublished until 2011. Trần Dần himself passed away in 1997. In 2007, Trần Dần was posthumously awarded the prestigious National Prize for Literature and Arts, recognizing his significant creative legacy. During his lifetime, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hanoi Writers Association.
Vũ Đình Giang
VŨ ĐÌNH GIANG is a Vietnamese novelist. He was born in Tiền Giang Province, and graduated with a Bachelor of Graphic Design from the Faculty of Industrial Fine Arts at Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture. In 2000, he won the Fourth Prize in the second installment of the Literature in its 20s (Văn Học Tuổi 20) contest. He currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City. Giang’s debut novel, Song Song (Parallel), was first published in 2007 and republished in 2011. It is widely regarded as one of the best works of gay fiction in the Vietnamese language.
Nguyễn Bình Phương
NGUYỄN BÌNH PHƯƠNG, a Vietnamese writer from a military background, was born in Thái Nguyên and worked for many years at the Northern border. After graduating from the Nguyễn Du writing school, he joined the military theater troupe as a screenwriter and later the People’s Army Publishing House as a literary editor. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Military Arts Magazine. In the 1990s, Phương’s novel The Young Die Old (Những đứa trẻ chết già) marked a major milestone for Vietnamese literature. Since then, he has continued to write in a unique style, with prominent works such as Người đi vắng, Thoạt kỳ thủy, Ngồi, and his latest novel, Mình và họ (I and They). In 2022, he received an award from The Vietnam Writers Association (Hội Nhà Văn Việt Nam) for his novel Một ví dụ xoàng.nt example).
Vũ Trọng Phụng
VŨ TRỌNG PHỤNG (1912-1939) was a renowned Vietnamese writer and journalist, regarded as one of the most influential figures in twentieth century Vietnamese literature. In his short lifespan of 27 years, Vũ Trọng Phụng left an astonishing body of works across genres, from short story and novel to play and journalism. His writings are known for their bold and uncompromising portrayal of Vietnamese society under French colonial rule and for addressing taboo topics such as sexuality and sex work. Accused of ‘cultural damage’ due to the sexual content in his writings, he faced legal action, and his works were banned in the north of Vietnam, then nationally until the late 1980s.
Nguyễn Du
NGUYỄN DU (1766-1820) was born in Hà Tĩnh Province, Vietnam. The son of a well-ranked family of elites, Du was well-versed in the Confucian classics, but his road to prosperity was cut short by a period of civil war, during which his village was burned, and he had to wander Vietnam in search of a new home. After peace was restored with the founding of the Nguyễn dynasty in 1802, he joined the royal court as an advisor to the Ministry of Rites, and later an ambassador to China. He died in Huế, the imperial capital, at the age of fifty-four. While dynastical records depict him as a quiet, timid mandarin, Nguyễn Du’s writings show a bold, vocal and emotional man, angered by systemic abuses of power and moved to tears by the sufferings of people, from soldiers fighting meaningless wars to sex workers dying in solitude. Through his inventive use of traditional forms, Nguyễn Du detailed the agonies of his world and asked why injustice was so rampant, sometimes calling on the Buddha to bring salvation to those who had been wronged.
Nguyễn Ngọc Tư
NGUYỄN NGỌC TƯ, a talented and highly acclaimed female writer of the Vietnam Writers Association (Hội Nhà Văn Việt Nam), was born in 1976. With passion, she writes tirelessly and diligently, choosing the most familiar and endearing subjects from her life as basis for her stories, with a quintessentially Southern tonality that has become a signature of her writing. Her short story collection Cánh đồng bất tận (Endless Fields) has received numerous awards, including the LiBeraturpreis Prize 2018, and has been adapted for the stage and screen. In 2019, she was listed by Forbes magazine as one of the Top 50 most influential women in Vietnam of 2018. Nguyễn Ngọc Tư’s works have been reprinted many times and translated into Korean, English, Swedish, and German.
