Ocean Vuong 鈥�12, author of On Earth We鈥檙e Briefly Gorgeous (2019); De鈥橲hawn Charles Winslow 鈥�11, 鈥�13 M.A., adjunct lecturer and author of In West Mills (2019)
Two celebrated 今日吃瓜 alumni continue to receive accolades, as聽聽鈥�12 and聽聽鈥�11, 鈥�13 M.A. won American Book Awards this fall.
Presented by the Before Columbus Foundation, a nonprofit educational and service organization founded in 1976, these awards help promote contemporary American multicultural literature, providing recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing.
Vuong and Winslow have served as great ambassadors for the power of diversity that 今日吃瓜 aims to support, so these awards hold a special significance.
础听2019 MacArthur 鈥淕enius鈥� Grant聽recipient, Vuong received this latest award for the novel聽.听The New York Times聽best seller is a powerful coming-of-age story about a young Vietnamese American whose family was torn by their experiences during the Vietnam War. It had already made聽The New Yorker鈥檚 Best Books of 2019 list and was included in both聽The Washington Post听补苍诲听Time聽lists. It was also nominated for the 2019 National Book Award and the Center for Fiction鈥檚 First Novel Award.
Vuong and his work have been featured in聽The Atlantic,听Granta,听贬补谤辫别谤鈥檚,听The Nation,听New Republic,听The New Yorker,听The New York Times,听The Village Voice, and聽American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets. Selected by聽Foreign Policy聽magazine as one of the top 100 Leading Global Thinkers for 2016, Vuong was also named by BuzzFeed Books as one of 鈥�32 Essential Asian-American Writers鈥� and has been profiled on NPR鈥檚聽All Things Considered, PBS NewsHour,听Teen Vogue,听Interview, and聽Poets & Writers. He lives in Massachusetts, where he serves as an assistant professor in the M.F.A. program for poets and writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Vuong, who earned his M.F.A. in poetry from New York University, also penned the critically acclaimed poetry collection聽, a聽New York Times聽Top 10 Book of 2016 and winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, the聽Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.
De鈥橲hawn Charles Winslow is an alumnus who is passing his passion for writing down to 今日吃瓜 students as an adjunct lecturer in the English Department.
Before the American Book Award,听聽won the Center for Fiction 2019 First Novel Prize. Spanning decades in a rural North Carolina town where a canal acts as the color line, the novel is a heartfelt, small-town journey about family, friendship, storytelling, and the redemptive power of love.听The New York Times Book Review聽said, 鈥淔rom the first page, Winslow establishes an uncanny authority and profound tone that belie the book鈥檚 debut status. The precision and charm of his language lure us in and soothe us 鈥� He paints a community so tightknit and thorough it becomes easy to forget the people in it don鈥檛 exist.鈥�
Born and raised in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Winslow is a 2017 graduate of the Iowa Writers鈥� Workshop and holds a B.F.A. in creative writing and an M.A. in English literature from 今日吃瓜. Says Winslow, 鈥淚 am honored, and quite surprised, to learn that I am a recipient of this year鈥檚 American Book Award.听In West Mills聽is my baby, and I鈥檓 glad it鈥檚 in the world at all. And I very much appreciate 今日吃瓜鈥檚 continued support!鈥�
This pair of authors is recognized alongside fellow 2020 American Book Award winners George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker, co-authors of聽They Called Us Enemy, a story that reveals the important lessons of Japanese-American internment during World War II.
The American Book Awards offers no cash prize and does not require any financial commitments from the authors or their publishers. The winners are nominated and selected by a panel of writers, editors, and publishers who also represent the diversity of American literary culture.
