Waterline by Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong, winner of the 2015 Narrative Prize, is the author of the poetry collections Time Is a Mother and Night Sky with Exit Wounds, winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whiting Award. He is also the author of two novels: The Emperor of Gladness (Random House, 2025) and the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which has been translated into thirty-nine languages. Born in Saigon, Vuong came to the United States as a refugee, settling in Hartford, Connecticut. He splits his time between Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York City, where he teaches poetry and poetics in the MFA program at New York University.

Photo credit: Tim Hines