Ocean Vuong's Debut Novel Named Top Book of 2019

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“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” by Ocean Vuong, an assistant professor in the Masters of Fine Arts Program for Poets and Writers, has been selected by a range of publications as one of the best books of the year.

Vuong’s debut novel was included in “The Washington Post,” “Variety” and “GQ” magazine's “Best Books of 2019” lists.

“Time” and “The Guardian” featured the book as one of the top fiction choices of the year.

CNN listed the best-seller as one of Amazon’s picks for the year and it has appeared on lists from “The Times,” “The Register Guard,” and boston.com, among others. “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” was long-listed for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction.

In September, Vuong became a MacArthur Fellow, reciving a “Genius” grant intended to recognize three criteria: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments and potential for the Fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.

In 2018, he received the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry for his debut poetry collection “Night Sky with Exit Wounds.” Additionally, the book also won the Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. His writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice and American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets.