Bich Minh Nguyen
Bich Minh "Beth" Nguyen (born 1974 Saigon) is an American novelist and nonfiction writer.[1] She won a 2010 American Book Award, for Short Girls and received the PEN/Jerard Award Fund in 2005.[2] Her third novel, Pioneer Girl was published by Viking Press in the United States on February 6, 2014. Her first name, Bich, is pronounced “Bik.” Nguyen, “the Smith of Viet Nam,” is pronounced approximately like “Ngoo-ee-ehn” (said quickly, in one syllable).
Life
Bich Minh Nguyen was born in 1974 in Saigon, which her family fled by ship the following year. After staying in refugee camps in Guam and at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, they settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Nguyen grew up.[3] Nguyen immigrated with her family to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1975.[4] She graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master of Fine Arts and is married to novelist Porter Shreve. They have two children. She taught at Purdue University and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco.
Works
- Pioneer Girl: a novel. Penguin. 2014. ISBN 978-0-698-15137-6.
- Short Girls: a novel. Penguin. 2009. ISBN 978-0-670-02081-2.
- Stealing Buddha's Dinner. Penguin. 2008. ISBN 978-0-14-311303-4.
Anthologies
- Susan Richards Shreve, ed. (2003). "Toadstools". Dream me home safely. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-618-37902-6.
- Reinder Van Til, Gordon L. Olson, eds. (2007). "The Good Immigrant Student". Thin ice: coming of age in Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-2478-3.
- Alice Peck, ed. (2008). "The Plum's Eye". Bread, Body, Spirit: Finding the Sacred in Food. SkyLight Paths Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59473-242-3.
- Lorraine López, ed. (2009). An angle of vision. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-05078-9.
Reviews
- Marion Winik (July 24, 2009). "'Short Girls' by Bich Minh Nguyen". The Los Angeles Times.
- Julie Tran (December 6, 2010). ""Stealing Buddha's Dinner" by Bich Minh Nguyen". Lariat. Archived from the original on 2010-12-30.
- BEN FONG-TORRES (February 4, 2007). "Hungry Heart". The New York Times.
References
External links
- Author's website
- "Welcome to the Great Michigan Read", Bich Minh Nguyen
- "Bich Minh Nguyen", 29th Key West Literary Seminar