Lê thi diem thúy
Encyclopedia
Lê Thị Diễm Thúy is an award-winning poet, novelist, and performer. Her pen name is lê thi diem thúy. She was born in the South Vietnam
ese village of Phan Thiết
on January 12, 1972 during the heart of the Vietnam War
.
' immigrants displaced by war. Le's mother and sister joined them two years later via a camp in Malaysia. Two of Le's siblings drowned during her childhood; her eldest brother drowned in the ocean in Vietnam when he was six while a sister drowned in a Malaysian refugee camp. Le adopted the name of her deceased sister after her father mistakenly reported her name when they were rescued at sea. She has four surviving siblings, two of which were born in America.
Le took her inspiration for writing from her love of fairy tales. I wanted to write because I loved fairy tales. Reading a book of Grimm fairy tales, she recalls, I felt transported. Things happen very suddenly in fairy tales: A man puts on a cloak and vanishes. I could relate to that. Once I was somewhere and then I was here, and everything had vanished. I didn't take it as fantastic. I thought it was real.
She moved to Massachusetts in 1990 to enroll in Hampshire College
where she concentrated on cultural studies and post-colonial literature. She chose the school because of its individualized, multidisciplinary curriculum and her desire to get as far away from San Diego as possible. In 1993 Le traveled to Paris to research French colonial postcard
s from the early 1900s—images of Vietnamese people taken by French photographers. Some of the images she collected would later appear in her performance work. It is in France, that she solidified her identity as an American and English as her preferred language. Being in France and not hearing English every day, she says, helped clarify how I hear English and carry it inside me.
On her return to Hampshire, she wrote poems, prose and pieces of dialog that would form the foundation for her senior thesis and first solo performance work Mua He Do Lua/Red Fiery Summer. After graduation, she traveled the country from 1995 to 1997 performing Red Fiery Summer play in community spaces and formal theaters. In 1996, she was commissioned to write her second solo performance work entitled the bodies between us, which was subsequently produced by New WORLD Theater.
In the same year, she published a prose piece entitled The Gangster We Are All Looking For in Massachusetts Review. It was rerun in Harper's Magazine
later that year, where it caught the attention of literary agent Nicole Aragi, who urged lê to expand the work into a novel. The unfinished book was picked up in 1999 by publisher Alfred A. Knopf
.
In 1998, while working on her book, Le returned to her birthplace Vietnam for the first time in 20 years with her mother. Her trip made her appreciate the how much her parents had suffered when they settled in America. It was profoundly sad for me, she says. The most powerful thing was this [extended] family. I must have been related to 200 people there. I realized how isolated my parents must have felt, the extent of what they had lost and had never been able to regain. Her mother returned to Vietnam permanently in 2001 after she was diagnosed with cancer. She is buried in her home village of Phan Thiết. Le's father moved back to Vietnam in 2003.
Le was cited by the New York Times as one of its "Writers On The Verge," shortly before her novel, The Gangster We Are All Looking For, was published by Knopf (2001) to glowing reviews. Her work has appeared in the Massachusetts Review, Harper's Magazine, and The Very Inside anthology, and among her awards are Fellowships from the Radcliffe and Guggenheim foundations.
Her powerful solo performance work includes Red Fiery Summer and The Bodies Between Us, which have been performed throughout the United States (at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Vineyard Theater, among others), as well as in Europe. While the former piece reflected many stories later included in The Gangster..., Le is currently basing her next novel on the latter.
Le is a Vietnamese American poet and performance artist who lives in Massachusetts. Born in South Vietnam in 1972 she left the country by boat in 1978 with her father and eventually settled in southern California. the rest of her family followed a few year later. le thi diem thuy wrote about her experiences in the memoir, THE GANGSTER WE ARE ALL LOOKING FOR.
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
ese village of Phan Thiết
Phan Thiết
Phan Thiết town is the capital of Binh Thuan province, in southeastern Vietnam. Phan Thiet is a municipality in central, south central sector, however, the development plan to 2025, it would be municipality Southeast Vietnam. The population of Phan Thiết city in 2005 is roughly 350,000 and is...
on January 12, 1972 during the heart of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
Life
In 1978, Le left her homeland alongside her father in a small fishing boat. They were picked up by an American naval ship and placed in a refugee camp in Singapore. She would eventually resettle to Southern California with her father. They lived in Linda Vista, San Diego in decaying 1940's-1950's Navy housing which they shared with fellow Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian 'boat peopleBoat people
Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees, illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made...
' immigrants displaced by war. Le's mother and sister joined them two years later via a camp in Malaysia. Two of Le's siblings drowned during her childhood; her eldest brother drowned in the ocean in Vietnam when he was six while a sister drowned in a Malaysian refugee camp. Le adopted the name of her deceased sister after her father mistakenly reported her name when they were rescued at sea. She has four surviving siblings, two of which were born in America.
Le took her inspiration for writing from her love of fairy tales. I wanted to write because I loved fairy tales. Reading a book of Grimm fairy tales, she recalls, I felt transported. Things happen very suddenly in fairy tales: A man puts on a cloak and vanishes. I could relate to that. Once I was somewhere and then I was here, and everything had vanished. I didn't take it as fantastic. I thought it was real.
She moved to Massachusetts in 1990 to enroll in Hampshire College
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...
where she concentrated on cultural studies and post-colonial literature. She chose the school because of its individualized, multidisciplinary curriculum and her desire to get as far away from San Diego as possible. In 1993 Le traveled to Paris to research French colonial postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s from the early 1900s—images of Vietnamese people taken by French photographers. Some of the images she collected would later appear in her performance work. It is in France, that she solidified her identity as an American and English as her preferred language. Being in France and not hearing English every day, she says, helped clarify how I hear English and carry it inside me.
On her return to Hampshire, she wrote poems, prose and pieces of dialog that would form the foundation for her senior thesis and first solo performance work Mua He Do Lua/Red Fiery Summer. After graduation, she traveled the country from 1995 to 1997 performing Red Fiery Summer play in community spaces and formal theaters. In 1996, she was commissioned to write her second solo performance work entitled the bodies between us, which was subsequently produced by New WORLD Theater.
In the same year, she published a prose piece entitled The Gangster We Are All Looking For in Massachusetts Review. It was rerun in Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
later that year, where it caught the attention of literary agent Nicole Aragi, who urged lê to expand the work into a novel. The unfinished book was picked up in 1999 by publisher Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
.
In 1998, while working on her book, Le returned to her birthplace Vietnam for the first time in 20 years with her mother. Her trip made her appreciate the how much her parents had suffered when they settled in America. It was profoundly sad for me, she says. The most powerful thing was this [extended] family. I must have been related to 200 people there. I realized how isolated my parents must have felt, the extent of what they had lost and had never been able to regain. Her mother returned to Vietnam permanently in 2001 after she was diagnosed with cancer. She is buried in her home village of Phan Thiết. Le's father moved back to Vietnam in 2003.
Le was cited by the New York Times as one of its "Writers On The Verge," shortly before her novel, The Gangster We Are All Looking For, was published by Knopf (2001) to glowing reviews. Her work has appeared in the Massachusetts Review, Harper's Magazine, and The Very Inside anthology, and among her awards are Fellowships from the Radcliffe and Guggenheim foundations.
Her powerful solo performance work includes Red Fiery Summer and The Bodies Between Us, which have been performed throughout the United States (at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Vineyard Theater, among others), as well as in Europe. While the former piece reflected many stories later included in The Gangster..., Le is currently basing her next novel on the latter.
I go about things in an oblique way. It's like a sidelong glance. This doesn't mean I don't like the sharp stab of directness—only that what I like more are all the moments, leading up to that moment of directness or that expression of rage . . . how long rage was silenced before it exploded and at what cost.
Le is a Vietnamese American poet and performance artist who lives in Massachusetts. Born in South Vietnam in 1972 she left the country by boat in 1978 with her father and eventually settled in southern California. the rest of her family followed a few year later. le thi diem thuy wrote about her experiences in the memoir, THE GANGSTER WE ARE ALL LOOKING FOR.