Vu Tran – Dragonfish

Late Night Debut, hosted by Amber Keller

This week we feature Vu Tran’s debut novel, Dragonfish, published by W.W. Norton & Company. “The plot of Dragonfish, like every respectable noir, is as tangled as a set of sweaty bed sheets in a no-tell motel,” said Maureen Corrigan on Fresh Air. “There are nods to noir classics like Gilda and Vertigo in this novel, but Tran also puts his own special stamp on the genre, particularly through the way he intersperses stories about the rootlessness of his Vietnamese characters and the immigrant American dream gone rancid.”

Act 1: Host Amber Keller covers entertaining book news and cool new debuts

Act 2: Co-hosts Dao Strom and Viet Thanh Nguyen discuss Vu Tran’s debut

Act 3: Dao Strom speaks with Vu Tran about subverting the American hero narrative, bending noir and maturing as a writer

Listen to the full episode here:

PURCHASE DRAGONFISH HERE

GIVEAWAY: WIN A FREE COPY OF DRAGONFISH. LISTEN TO THE EPISODE FOR DETAILS, THEN EMAIL YOUR ANSWER TO [email protected] BY MIDNIGHT ON AUGUST 16.

ABOUT OUR FEATURED AUTHOR:

Vu Tran is the winner of a Whiting Award recognizing “exceptional talent and promise.” He teaches creative writing at the University of Chicago and holds a PhD from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and an MFA from the University of Iowa, Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Dragonfish is his first novel.

ABOUT OUR ACT 2 CO-HOST AUTHORS:

Dao Strom is the author of two books of fiction, Grass Roof, Tin Roof and The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys. She is also a writer of songs. Her forthcoming memoir, We Were Meant To Be a Gentle People, is accompanied by a music album, East/West. She was born in Vietnam and grew up in the Sierra Nevadas of northern California.

Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and raised in America. He is the author of the novel, The Sympathizer, and an academic book, Race and Resistance. His stories have appeared in Best New American Voices, TriQuarterly, Narrative, and the Chicago Tribune. He lives in Los Angeles.