#nonfiction

Literature

From the Mind of 'Mekong Review' Comes ‘Yellow,’ a New Lit Mag Focused on SEA

“Cooped up in my apartment-cage in Tân Định, I created, with scissors and glue, dummy after dummy of a cosmopolitan rag positively pumping with scandals and half-truths. I was having a lot of fun dreaming of a magazine that I would never be able to do. And buried somewhere in that detritus on the floor—advertising cutouts and newspaper clippings—was Yellow … Once I knew I had the name, the magazine more or less made itself, as though the name determined the rest, ie, form and content,” writes Minh Bui of the birth of Yellow , his “what-do-I-do-after- Mekong Review magazine.”

Literature

5 Quixotic Books About Vietnam for When You're Craving a Little Quirky Read

There are too many good Vietnamese books to recommend, let alone read.

Loạt Soạt

Viet Thanh Nguyen's New Essay Collection Is Both Theoretically Sharp and Intimately Tender

Last year, acclaimed Vietnamese American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen published To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other , a collection of six essays adapted from the prestigious Norton Lectures that he delivered at Harvard in 2023–2024.

In Plain Sight

Pages of Passion Bookstore Epitomizes What It Means to Run a Passion Project

On the sixth floor of an old apartment building on Nguyễn Văn Tráng Street in District 1 stands Pages of Passion , a true haven for book lovers. New and used literature from around the world; non-fiction spanning philosophy, natural science, history, biographies, and psychology, and even some poetry fill the floor-to-ceiling shelves in the inviting space. One could spend time wondering why it took so long for a shop like this to open in Saigon, but those hours are better spent perusing the titles that include best-sellers, classics, and global phenomena alongside overlooked treasures.

Culture

In the Latest Issue of 'No One Magazine,' 15 Stories From Vietnam's Queer Communities

No One Magazine, a print publication about underground queer nightlife around the world, is focusing on Vietnam for its second issue with corresponding launch events in Hanoi and Saigon.

Literature

Korean Culture Has Stolen Vietnam's Hearts. What About Korean Literature?

If you were a book publisher and saw a sudden spike in sales for a book published years ago, how would you explain it?

Trích or Triết

Vũ Bằng's Nostalgic Longings for Hanoi Teach Us How to Love a Place Deeply

From Thương Nhớ Mười Hai to Miếng Ngon Hà Nội , Vũ Bằng’s way of lacing Hanoian features with melancholic reminiscence always brings me straight back to the embrace of my hometown, even more so after I moved to Saigon at age 19. Since then, my writing and social media posts about Hanoi have often been accompanied by quotes “stolen” from his books: “My spring — the spring of northern Vietnam, Hanoi's spring — is a season of gentle misty rain, cool tender winds, the sound of swallows calling all jade-dark night, distant chèo drum beats from distant hamlets with maidens lovely as poems singing timeless love songs.” This was how Vũ Bằng’s oeuvre made its way to my heart.