If you were in the San Francisco area on Saturday, October 21st, 2023, you could have joined the Diasporic Vientamese American Network (DVAN) at Adobe Books and Art Collective from 5-6PM for Litquake’s LitCrawl.
The DVAN Writers reading for the night were Krysada Phounsiri, Christina Vo, Danny Thanh Nguyen, and Truong Tran. It was only for one hour, so you would have wanted to be there ahead of time.
Adobe Books and Art Collective is located at 3130 24th St., San Francisco, California.
Krysada Phounsiri is a Lao American award-winning poet, dancer, optical engineer, and photographer. He graduated from UC Berkeley double-majoring in Physics and Astrophysics and minored in Creative Writing (Poetry). He’s published in the Journal of Southeast American Education and Advancement, SEARAC 40 & Forward, and San Diego Poetry Together Anthology. His poetry books Dance Among Elephants (2015) and Every Passing Minute (2020) explores identity, family, homeland, love, and dance.
Christina Vo is a writer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she continues to write and explore the interplay of culture, identity and personal history. Christina’s debut memoir, The Veil Between Two Worlds: A Memoir of Silence, Loss, and Finding Home, demonstrates her ability to weave personal experiences into broader narratives about identity, home, and belonging. Her second book, My Vietnam, Your Vietnam, an intergenerational memoir co-written with her father, will be published in May 2024.
Danny Thanh Nguyen (they/she/he equally) has published stories and essays in GQ, them magazine, The Offing, and elsewhere. They are a 2023 Visiting Fellow for the MDOCS Storytellers Institute at Skidmore College and Anne Frank Visiting Research for the Southeast Asian Archives at UC Irvine. Danny most recent awards include grants and residencies UCross Foundation, Carolyn Moor Writers House, and San Francisco Arts Commission. Her column on kink and leather culture has appeared in the international social network platform Recon.
Truong Tran was born in Saigon, Vietnam. He is the author of eight books of poetry, including Four Letter Words (Apogee Press, 2008) Book of the Other: Small in Comparison (Kaya Press, 2021) which won the American Book Award, and his newest release, Looking Seeing Seeing Looking (Omnidawn, 2023). Tran is the recipient of numerous honors, awards, residencies and fellowships. His visual art has been shown in Bay Area galleries such as intersection, APAture, and A. Muse Gallery. Truong lives in San Francisco and teaches at Northwestern University (Previously Mills College) in Oakland, California.