Tuan Phan is a Vietnamese American writer and literature teacher based in Taipei. He is the author of Remembering Water and the forthcoming story collection Gills and Other Stories (Texas Tech University Press, 2026).

Born in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), he left the city as a child and returned decades later—an experience that continues to shape much of his writing.

His memoir Remembering Water: A Memoir of Departure and Return won the Hidden River Arts Panther Creek Award in Nonfiction and was published by Hidden River Press in 2023. The book recounts his family’s escape from Vietnam, his return to the country as an adult, and the shifting landscapes of memory, family, and belonging that emerged from that journey. An excerpt from the memoir, “From Saigon to Bataan to Ohio,” received the Talking Writing Essay Award in 2018.

His forthcoming short story collection, Gills and Other Stories (Texas Tech University Press, 2026), is primarily set in Saigon. His work examines displacement, memory, and a sense of place that lingers across generations. He currently teaches literature while continuing to write. He can be reached below or on instagram.