Aimee Phan (born 1977)[1] is an American novelist and educator, of Vietnamese descent. She teaches at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, California.

Aimee Phan
Born1977 (age 46–47)
EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles (BA)
Iowa Writers' Workshop (MFA)
Occupation(s)Novelist, educator

Early life and education

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Aimee Phan was born in 1977 and raised in Orange County, California.[1][2] Her mother was a social worker in the Little Saigon neighborhood.[1]

She received a BA degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); and received a MFA degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she won a Maytag Fellowship.

Career

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Her first novel, We Should Never Meet (2004), is about American foster children from Vietnam, during the Vietnam War.[3][4] We Should Never Meet (2004) was named a notable book by the Kiriyama Prize in fiction, and was a finalist for the 2005 Asian American Literary Awards.[1] Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, USA Today and The Oregonian among other publications.

Phan worked from fall 2005 to summer 2007 as an assistant professor in English at Washington State University. She teaches as an associate professor in writing and literature at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, California.[5][6]

She resides in Berkeley, California with her husband and two kids.

Selected works

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Books
Essays

Awards and honors

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  • 2004, Association of Asian American Studies Book Award
  • 2005, Finalist for the Asian American Literary Awards in Fiction
  • 2005, Kiriyama Prize Notable Book[1]
  • 2010, National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
  • 2014, Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency

Reviews

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Janette, Michele (2011-07-22). My Viet: Vietnamese American Literature in English, 1962-Present. University of Hawaii Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-8248-6018-9.
  2. ^ Chang, Richard (2012-03-23). "O.C. native Aimee Phan writes novel about reeducation camps". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  3. ^ Patel, Anhoni (September 19, 2004). "Vietnam 'war babies' still nursing their scars". SFGate. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  4. ^ Ciuraru, Carmela (2004-09-29). "Vietnam's legacy of childhood displacement". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  5. ^ "Next Letter in the Mail: Aimee Phan". The Rumpus. 2020-07-30. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
  6. ^ Krasny, Michael (2015-04-30). "40 Years After Fall of Saigon, Vietnamese-American Writers Discuss War, Emigration". KQED. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
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