Ocean Vuong to Release Critically Acclaimed Novel June 4

Ocean Vuong, assistant professor in the department of English, will release his second book “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” on Tuesday, June 4. This is Vuong's first novel, following his poetry collection, “Night Sky with Exit Wounds.”

Critically acclaimed by the New York Times and Washington Post, the novel is written from the perspective of an adult son to his mother who cannot read. The narrator, Little Dog, explores his family’s history, beginning in Vietnam, and parts of his life his mother was removed from, like his experience as a gay immigrant in high school.

Ron Charles of the Washington Post describes the books as “A lyrical work of self-discovery that’s shockingly intimate and insistently universal…Not so much briefly gorgeous as permanently stunning.”

The Odyssey Bookshop is hosting a reading and signing event for “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” on Sunday, June 2, in the Hooker Auditorium at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. The event is free, but RSVPs are requested. Vuong will spend the summer making appearances in the U.S. and U.K.