I’m a Vietnamese American writer and literature teacher based in Taipei. The author of Remembering Water and the story collection Gills and Other Stories (Texas Tech University Press, 2026). Born in Saigon two years after the end of the war, I left the city as a child and returned decades later—an experience that continues to shape much of my writing.

My 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 my family’s escape from Vietnam, our year as refugees, my 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.

My short story collection, Gills and Other Stories (Texas Tech University Press, 2026), is primarily set in Saigon. It examines displacement, memory, and a sense of place that lingers across generations. I’m currently teaching literature while continuing to write. You can reach me on Instagram @tuanphan225