Portobello bookshop link: https://www.theportobellobookshop.com/events/ocean-vuong-the-emperor-of-gladness
Combining grit and grace, humour and love, The Emperor of Gladness is a moving story of friendship and how much we’re willing to risk for one of life’s most treasured mercies: a second chance.
Vuong will be in conversation with fellow poet and writer Michael Pedersen.
Doors due to open at 6.45pm.
Ocean Vuong Author
Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds and the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the 2019 MacArthur "Genius" Grant, he is also the winner of the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His writings have been featured in Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, Nation, NewRepublic, New Yorker, and the New York Times. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Michael Pedersen Chair
Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet and author, the Writer in Residence at Edinburgh University and the Edinburgh Makar (Poet Laureate). His prose debut, Boy Friends, was published by Faber & Faber to rave reviews and was a Sunday Times Critics Choice 2022. He’s unfurled three collections of poetry, the most recent being The Cat Prince & Other Poems – which won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Best Poetry 2023. Pedersen has been shortlisted for the Forward Prizes for Poetry and The Scottish National Book Awards, and won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. His work has attracted praise from the likes of: Stephen Fry, Bernardine Evaristo, Kae Tempest, Irvine Welsh & many more. His debut novel, Muckle Flugga, arrives with Faber in May 2025.
