This is fresh air, I'm Terry Gross.

Our guest today, Ocean Vuong, is the author of the critically acclaimed novel on Earth

where briefly gorgeous, based on his own experience as growing up in Connecticut, marginalized

as a Vietnamese immigrant, poor, and gay.

The book became a bestseller in 2019, the year he also received a MacArthur grant, also

known as the Genius Grant, and the year his mother died.

He has a new collection of poems related to her death, called Time Is a Mother.

He spoke with our guest interviewer, Tanya Mosley.

Here's Tanya.

What does it mean to write to a mother who will never read it?

That's one of the central questions of Ocean Vuong's 2019 novel on Earth where briefly

gorgeous.

The book is a work of fiction and also autobiographical, a letter to Vuong's mother Rose, who never

learned to read.

Rose was an immigrant from Vietnam, who worked at a nail salon for 25 years.

She died in 2019 from breast cancer, the same year the novel was released.

Vuong's newest book Time Is a Mother is a searing book of poetry that he calls a search for

life after the death of his mother.

And Ocean Vuong joins us now.

Welcome to fresh air.

Thank you so much, Tanya.

It's a deep pleasure to be here.

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