“Writers on writing aim for the heart” by Mark Panek. Review of Beyond Words, Asian Writers on their Work in the Daily Yomiuri Online, December 23, 2006. A quotation: “When writers get it right, the particular becomes the familiar, and suddenly we find ourselves, say, locked in a dark prison cell somewhere in Vietnam secretly composing an anthology of poems in our heads along with the political prisoner-poet Nguyen Chi Thien.” Article on Vietnamese American Achievement blog cites experience of creating the autobiography by Nguyen Chi Thien--his first original work in English--with Dan Duffy, director of the Viet Nam Literature Project, Jean Libby, editor of Viet-Am Review, and Brent Fujinaka of Manoa Magazine.   more »

After many long journeys in the thirty years since Vietnamese people began immigration in substantial numbers to the USA, the heritage and culture of Vietnamese Americans is celebrated in a Heritage Project exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution opening on January 19, 2007. Check it out on www.vietam.org.   more »