Ocean Vuong on Telling Lies, Building Family and Loving the Knicks

Ocean Vuong is one of the most beloved and acclaimed contemporary writers – his 2016 award-winning first poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, was published before he finished his MFA. But his sudden success has come with some pitfalls, and has illuminated some practical skills he hasn’t learned. “In some ways, I feel kind of like a child actor,” he said to Anna. Ocean’s partner and his younger half brother drive him places and accompany him on trips. “I tell my family, if it wasn't for you guys, if it was just me, I would be in a studio with just a single mattress surrounded by books stacked from the floor up,” he said.

But sharing the benefits of his professional accomplishments is a big part of how Ocean lives with his family and shows up for his friends. He talks about falling in love with poetry – and his partner – in his 20s in New York, what he loves about living in the country, and his surprising love of the New York Knicks.