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New York, NY (September 8, 2020) — Viet Thanh Nguyen, novelist and professor of English, Comparative Literature, and American Studies and Ethnicity at University of Southern California, has been elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board, Columbia University announced today.
“It’s an honor to be elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board. As someone fortunate enough to be a recipient of the prize, I know the impact that the prize has on a writer’s career and on the perceptions of readers. I’m delighted to join in the Board’s crucial work,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen’s novel “The Sympathizer” won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and numerous other awards. The Pulitzer Board described “The Sympathizer” as “A layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a ‘man of two minds’ — and two countries, Vietnam and the United States.” Nguyen’s other books are a short story collection, “The Refugees; Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War” (a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction); and “Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America.”
He is a University Professor, the Aerol Arnold Chair of English, and a Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, he is also a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and the editor of “The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives.” He is the first Asian-American and Vietnamese-American member of the Pulitzer Board.
“We are delighted to welcome Viet Thanh Nguyen to the Pulitzer Board,’’ said Pulitzer co-chairs Stephen Engelberg, Editor-in-Chief, ProPublica, and Aminda Marqués Gonzalez, President, Publisher and Executive Editor, Miami Herald. “His remarkable range of experiences as a novelist, journalist, essayist and scholar make him a wonderful addition to the board in this time of extraordinary ferment.’’
Nguyen’s most recent publication is “Chicken of the Sea,” a children’s book written in collaboration with his 6-year-old son, Ellison. His next book is the sequel to “The Sympathizer,” “The Committed,” forthcoming in March 2021.
The Pulitzer Prizes, which are administered at Columbia University, were established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher, who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. A portion of his bequest was used to found the School of Journalism in 1912 and establish the Pulitzer Prizes, which were first awarded in 1917.
The 19-member board is composed mainly of leading journalists or news executives from media outlets across the U.S., as well as five academics or persons in the arts. The dean of Columbia's journalism school and the administrator of the prizes are nonvoting members. The chair rotates annually to the most senior member or members. The board is self-perpetuating in the election of members. Voting members may serve three terms of three years for a total of nine years.