Phan Nhien Hao
Encyclopedia
Phan Nhiên Hạo is a Vietnamese poet and translator, living in the United States
.
He was born in Kontum
, Vietnam
, came to the US in 1991 and now lives in Illinois
. He has a BA in Vietnamese Literature from The Teachers College of Saigon, a BA in American Literature from UCLA, and a Master in Library Science, also from UCLA. He is the author of two collections of poems, Paradise of Paper Bells (Thiên Đường Chuông Giấy, 1998) and Manufacturing Poetry 99-04 (Chế Tạo Thơ Ca 99-04 2004). His poems have been translated into English and published in the journals The Literary Review, Manoa, xconnect and Filling Station, and in Of Vietnam: Identities in Dialogues (Palgrave 2001), and in a full-length, bilingual collection, Night, Fish and Charlie Parker, translated by Linh Dinh
(Tupelo 2006). Vince Gotera reviews this book in the North American Review
:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
He was born in Kontum
Kontum
Kon Tum is the capital town of Kon Tum province in Vietnam. It is located inland in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam, near the borders with Laos and Cambodia....
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, came to the US in 1991 and now lives in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. He has a BA in Vietnamese Literature from The Teachers College of Saigon, a BA in American Literature from UCLA, and a Master in Library Science, also from UCLA. He is the author of two collections of poems, Paradise of Paper Bells (Thiên Đường Chuông Giấy, 1998) and Manufacturing Poetry 99-04 (Chế Tạo Thơ Ca 99-04 2004). His poems have been translated into English and published in the journals The Literary Review, Manoa, xconnect and Filling Station, and in Of Vietnam: Identities in Dialogues (Palgrave 2001), and in a full-length, bilingual collection, Night, Fish and Charlie Parker, translated by Linh Dinh
Linh Dinh
Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow.-Biography:...
(Tupelo 2006). Vince Gotera reviews this book in the North American Review
North American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...
:
- "An overwhelming sense of liminality pervades these poems: "I walk on bridges connecting two alien shores," says the poet; "my country; which country, I asked." Surrealism also suffuses Phan's work, as does jazzJazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
: "all I love is jazz jazz jazz and lots of gasoline in my bloody abyss." Phan draws from Vietnamese, French, and American literatures, mixing traditional and modern Vietnamese cultures with French literature, "imbued with philosophy, with lots of experimentations": and American literature "suitable to a consumer society and a pragmatic culture, with that American emphasis on results" (as he told translator Linh Dinh in an interview included at the end of the book). Phan adds, "an investigation into American literature would greatly benefit Vietnamese writers. It would [. . .] improve their sense of humor." All of these qualities are combined in Phan's work, as glimpsed in the book's title Night, Fish, and Charlie Parker—especially humor. Phan's poetry is a distinctly American immigrant text, melancholy and celebratory at the same time. Read this book."
External links
- "Three Vietnamese Poets", a PDF file, featuring poems by Nguyễn Quốc ChánhNguyen Quoc ChanhNguyễn Quốc Chánh is a Vietnamese poet.He was born in Bạc Liêu, and now lives in Ho Chi Minh City. He is the author of four collections of poems, Night of the Rising Sun , Inanimate Weather , the e-book Coded Personal Info and the samizdat Hey, I'm Here...
, Phan Nhiên Hạo and Văn Cầm Hải - Three poems by Phan Nhiên Hạo
- Phan Nhien Hao's personal webpage (in Vietnamese)
- Linh Dinh interviewing Phan Nhiên Hạo (in Vietnamese)