Meet the author: Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong is one of the most acclaimed and beloved authors of recent years. After the global success of the compelling family portrait On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, he confirmed his exceptional talent in 2025 with The Emperor of Gladness. In 2026 he will be in Brussels for what is bound to be an intense conversation. Fellow writer and admirer Saskia De Coster will be asking the questions.
A co-production by Passa Porta and Bozar
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beauty and ugliness
What if beauty and ugliness weren’t opposites? What if, instead, they crashed into each other, existed side by side and shaped us? That is exactly what Ocean Vuong invites you to explore during his visit to Bozar. Drawing on carefully selected excerpts from his latest novel The Emperor of Gladness and earlier works, the Vietnamese-American poet and novelist will engage in an intimate conversation.
‘Of poignant beauty and searing intensity.’
a rare opportunity
In The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean Vuong shows how, throughout the cycles of history, memory and time, love, labour and loneliness have formed the foundations of American life. On 14 March, he will share his reflections on identity, language and how the luminous and the broken are intertwined. A rare opportunity to meet one of today’s most tender and transformative literary voices.
about the author
Ocean Vuong (b. 1988) is a poet, essayist and writer. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s and The New Yorker, among others. Born in Saigon, he emigrated to the US with his family in 1990. Dyslexia affected many members of his family and he himself only learned to read when he was 11. Despite this, his acclaimed poetry debut Night Sky With Exit Wounds won him several major literary prizes, including the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was published in 2019. The Emperor of Gladness followed six years later.
about the interviewer
Saskia De Coster (b. 1976) is the author of a unique body of work. Her books have been translated into more than ten languages. Her novel Nachtouders (2019) was shortlisted for the Libris Literature Award. In 2025 she released Pink Lady in the Terloops series published by Uitgeverij Van Oorschot. Her latest novel, De laatste sessie, was released by Borgerhoff & Lamberigts.
pictures: ocean voung © gioncarlo valentine, saskia de coster @ johan jacobs
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