Wikipedia

Kimberly Nguyen

In this article, the surname is Nguyễn but is often simplified to Nguyen in English-language text.

Kimberly Nguyen
Kimberly Nguyễn, the Vietnamese-American diaspora poet
Born (1997-09-28) September 28, 1997 (age 27)
EducationVassar College (B.A.)
OccupationPoet
Websitekimberlynguyenwrites.com

Kimberly Nguyen (born September 28, 1997) is a Vietnamese-American poet and essayist. She is a recipient of an Emerging Voices Fellowship from PEN America,[1] a Poetry Coalition Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, and numerous other writing awards including a Best of the Net and a Jack McCarthy Book Prize.

Early life

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Nguyen was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Vietnamese refugees. Her mother was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and her father was born in a farming village in Sốc Trăng, Vietnam. Her parents met at a refugee detention center in Cambodia and eventually relocated to Omaha, Nebraska where they married.[2] Nguyen is the eldest of 3 children.

Nguyen says that she was "born a writer", selecting a pen on her first birthday during a Chinese-Vietnamese tradition called thôi nôi.[3] She struggled with her identity as a writer early in life, but eventually gave in to her "urge to write".[4] She had a difficult relationship with her parents growing up, which influences her work heavily.

Education

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Nguyen attended high school at Roncalli Catholic High School, where she graduated valedictorian in 2015. She was an exceptionally bright student, receiving many awards including an honorable mention and nomination for the 2015 Nebraska All-State Academic Team and the Omaha World Herald Key Staffer Award.[5] After graduating high school, she attended Vassar College and graduated in 2019 with a B.A. in English Literature and Russian Studies. While at Vassar, she studied writing with author and critic Michael Joyce and novelist Amitava Kumar and received a Beatrice Daw Brown Prize for Excellence in Poetry.

Career

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Nguyen's early writing career started in journalism, showing a particular knack for investigative journalism. While at Vassar, she wrote for Vassar's weekly student newspaper, The Miscellany News. Her articles include personal essays on being bilingual,[6] grief,[7] and a coincidental connection to Kimarlee Nguyen, a Cambodian-American writer who also attended Vassar before her.[8] Nguyen's most notable article exposed a legal loophole in the state of New York that allowed Vassar and other colleges to pay students below state minimum wage,[9] and backlash from the article ultimately pressured the school to raise the wage.[10]

Nguyen's poems can be found in various journals including perhappened mag, Hobart, and Muzzle Magazine.[11] She has self-published 3 poetry collections: i am made of war[12] (out of print), flesh,[13] and ghosts in the stalks.[14] ghosts in the stalks was a briefly a #3 bestseller in Asian-American poetry on Amazon in 2020. Her latest collection, Here I Am Burn Me, came out in October 2022 with Write Bloody Publishing and was briefly a #1 bestseller in Asian-American poetry on Amazon in March 2023 following a viral tweet that gained international attention.

Nguyen was an Emerging Voices Fellow at PEN America in 2021[1] and was a 2022-2023 Poetry Coalition Fellow at Urban Word NYC through the Academy of American Poets.[15]

Fellowships and awards

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Fellowship/Award Year Received Citation
Best of the Net 2023 2023 [16]
Best of the Net Nomination 2022 [17]
Poetry Coalition Fellowship 2022 [15]
Jack McCarthy Book Prize 2022 [18]
Frontier New Poets Award Finalist 2021 [19]
Frontier OPEN Prize Finalist 2021 [20]
PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship 2021 [1]
Kundiman Mentorship Lab Finalist 2021 [21]
Best of the Net Nomination 2020 [22]
Beatrice Daw Brown Prize for Excellence in Poetry 2019 [23]

Currently, Nguyen lives and works in New York City, NY.[24]

Activism

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Pay Transparency

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In addition to being a poet, Nguyen is a contracted UX writer at Citibank. On March 6, 2023, Nguyen published a tweet onto her Twitter account claiming that her company had listed her same role for $32,000-$90,000 more than she was currently making.[25] The tweet immediately went viral, attracting 12.6 million views and quickly making her a visible champion for pay transparency. Screenshots of the tweet were posted on other platforms such as TikTok and Reddit and major news outlets such as Buzzfeed,[26] Good Morning America,[27] CNBC,[28] and The New York Times[29] also picked up the story.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "2021 Emerging Voices Fellows and Mentors". PEN America. 2021-06-23. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  2. ^ "Second Generation". Project Yellow Dress. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  3. ^ "Vietnamese Americans use art to tell their stories". KBIA. 2020-05-23. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  4. ^ "Writing Into Existence: Artist Profile of Kimberly Nguyen". DVAN. 2020-01-29. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  5. ^ "2015 Omaha World-Herald Scholars". Issuu. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  6. ^ "English major reflects on struggles of being bilingual – The Miscellany News". 12 September 2018. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  7. ^ "Grieving student explores complex process of letting go – The Miscellany News". 19 September 2018. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  8. ^ "Vassar Missed Connection #0001 – In memory of Kimarlee Nguyen". The Miscellany News. 10 April 2020. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  9. ^ "Vassar still refuses to pay students NY minimum wage". The Miscellany News. January 30, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  10. ^ "Vassar raises wage to meet New York State minimum – The Miscellany News". 27 March 2019. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  11. ^ "Press/Media". Kimberly Nguyễn. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  12. ^ Nguyen, Kimberly (2017-01-11). I Am Made of War. Lulu Press, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-365-55568-8.
  13. ^ Nguyen, Kimberly (2017-11-28). Flesh. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1-9811-4682-6.
  14. ^ Nguyen, Kimberly (2019-11-04). Ghost in the Stalks. Independently Published. ISBN 978-1-6954-8009-4.
  15. ^ a b Poets, Academy of American. "The Poetry Coalition Presents its 2022–2023 Fellows | poets.org". poets.org. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  16. ^ "on being chị hai (verse 2) – Best of the Net". Retrieved 2023-04-30.
  17. ^ Twitter https://twitter.com/osuthejournal/status/1576587625330540547. Retrieved 2022-10-04. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. ^ "Write Bloody on Twitter: "We are excited to announce this year's winners of the Jack McCarthy book prize! This year was the most competitive year and the scoring was incredibly tight". Twitter. February 15, 2022. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
  19. ^ "The 2021 Award For New Poets — Winners and Finalists! | Frontier Poetry - Exploring the Edges of Contemporary Poetry". Frontier Poetry. 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  20. ^ "2021 Open Finalists: Part 2 of 3 | Frontier Poetry - Exploring the Edges of Contemporary Poetry". Frontier Poetry. 2021-10-06. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  21. ^ "Mentorship Lab". Kundiman. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  22. ^ "Nominations". Parentheses Journal. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  23. ^ "Prizes - English Department - Vassar College". www.vassar.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-19.
  24. ^ "Bestselling Vietnamese-American Poet". Kimberly Nguyễn. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  25. ^ "https://twitter.com/knguyenpoetry/status/1633216630351179780?s=20". Twitter. Retrieved 2023-07-19. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  26. ^ Liscomb, Megan (2023-03-10). "This Woman Saw Her Exact Job Posted For A Higher Salary, And It's Infuriating". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  27. ^ America, Good Morning. "Woman says she fought for equal pay after seeing she earned $90k less for same role". Good Morning America. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  28. ^ Liu, Jennifer (2023-03-11). "'My company just listed on LinkedIn a job' at my title paying up to $90K more, says NYC worker—so she applied". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  29. ^ Brown, H. Claire (2023-06-20). "A Job With a Fair Salary? What Pay Transparency Laws Are Revealing". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
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