On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

A lyrical novel written as a letter from a son to his mother, capturing the tenderness and violence of immigrant life and queer love.

--- Introduction of the Authur ---

“Language itself is creation… It’s absolutely integral to our species, and even more so when we’re negotiating the language of war and diaspora.”
“Perhaps one day, masculinity might become so myriad, so malleable, it no longer needs a fixed border to recognize itself. It might not need to be itself at all. I wonder if that, too, is the queering of a space?”

Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese-American poet and novelist. His queer identity and immigrant background give him a unique, sensitive writing style. From the Vietnam War to modern America, his poetic, vulnerable yet resilient writing connects war trauma, family memory, and the exploration of gender and body.

His words are quiet yet can touch the deepest emotions. Writing in English—“the tongue that silenced his mother”—he breaks down sentences, reshapes rhythms, and transforms language into a flexible container, an extension of the body. Vuong’s writing explores the possibilities within language, creating new forms from the edges.