Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese-American writer who has received numerous awards and nominations. His three separate poems – Prayer for the Newly Damned, Telemachus, and Self Portrait as Exit Wounds – respectively won the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize, the Chad Walsh Poetry Prize, and the Pushcart Prize before being published as a complete collection of poems.
Vuong's poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, was one of the New York Times Critics' Top Books of 2016. It's earned him a series of prestigious awards such as the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Thom Gunn Award, the Whiting Award, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. The book was also a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Awards.
Three years later, Ocean Vuong released his debut novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, which continued to earn him many of the first literary awards in his career such as the American Book Awards, the Ferro-Grumley Award, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature, the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, and the New England Book Award for Fiction. It was named one of the best book of the year by Time, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal and many more. The book was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in Fiction, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. The novel was also a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the International Dublin Literary Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Kirkus Prize and the Lambda Literary Awards.
In addition to his literary achievements, Vuong also received grants from many organizations to provide financial support throughout his career. In 2014, Vuong was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Five years later, he was named a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship as well as other prestigious scholarships from the Lannan Foundation, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Elizabeth George Foundation, Kundiman, and Poets House. In 2015, he was named by BuzzFeed as one of the "32 Essential Asian American Writers" and selected by Foreign Policy as a "2016 100 Leading Global Thinker" alongside Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki-moon, and Angela Merkel.
Literature Organizations Year Category Work Result Dublin Literary Award2026Dublin Literary Award 2026 ShortlistThe Emperor of GladnessOprah Book Club2025May 2025 SelectionThe Emperor of Gladness American Library Association 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Stonewall Book Award for Literature Aspen Words 2020 Aspen Words Literary Prize Before Columbus Foundation 2020 American Book Awards Beloit Poetry Journal 2013 The Chad Walsh Poetry Prize Telemachus Bibliotekets litteraturpris 2022 Literature for Adults On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Brooklyn Public Library 2020 Literary Prize for Fiction/Poetry Claremont Graduate University 2017 Kate Tufts Discovery Award Night Sky with Exit Wounds Connecticut Book Awards 2020 Fiction On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Digital Book World 2019 Best Book (Fiction) Dublin City Libraries 2021 International Dublin Literary Award Dylan Thomas Prize 2020 Novel Forward Prizes for Poetry 2017 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds Goodreads Choice Awards 2016 Best Poetry 2019 Best Debut Novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Best Fiction 2022 Best Poetry Time Is a Mother Griffin Poetry Prize 2023 Poetry Kirkus Reviews 2019 Kirkus Prize for Fiction On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Lambda Literary Awards 2017 Gay Poetry Night Sky with Exit Wounds 2020 Gay Fiction On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Mark Twain House 2020 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Massachusetts Book Award 2020 Fiction National Association of Asian American Professionals 2020 NAAAP Pride Award — Narrative Magazine 2015 Narrative Prize No One Knows the Way to Heaven National Book Award 2019 Fiction On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous New England Book Awards 2019 Fiction PEN America 2020 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel PEN/Faulkner Foundation 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Publishing Triangle 2017 Thom Gunn Award Night Sky with Exit Wounds 2020 Ferro-Grumley Award On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Pushcart Prize 2013 Poetry Self Portrait as Exit Wounds T. S. Eliot Prize 2018 Poetry Night Sky with Exit Wounds The American Poetry Review 2012 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize Prayer for the Newly Damned The Center for Fiction 2019 First Novel Prize On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Whiting Award 2016 Poetry Night Sky with Exit Wounds
Career awards Fellowship & Grant Organization Year Award Academy of American Poets 2010 College Poetry Prize Civitella Ranieri Foundation 2016 Fellow Elizabeth George Foundation 2014 Fellowship 2015 Kundiman 2012 Fellow Lannan Literary Awards 2016 Lannan Literary Fellowship MacArthur Foundation 2019 MacArthur Fellowship Poetry Foundation 2014 Ruth Lilly / Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships Poets House 2013 Emerging Poets Fellowship United States Artists 2021 USA Fellowships
Residences Organization Year Programme Asian/Pacific/American Institute 2019–20 Artist-in-Residence Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts 2013 Residency
Listicles Publisher Category Year BuzzFeed 32 Essential Asian-American Writers 2015 Foreign Policy The Leading Global Thinkers of 2016 2016
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