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“A beautifully curated, deeply moving collection.” —San Francisco Book Review
Fifty years after the end of the Vietnam War, literary voices of the Vietnamese-American diaspora as well as Vietnam-based authors speak to the experience of those who left and those who stayed in THE COLORS OF APRIL, a collection of new short fiction curated by award-winning translators and editors Quan Manh Ha and Cab Tran.
For much of the twentieth century, Vietnam played an outsized role on the global stage, charting the destinies of superpowers and reshaping the world’s politics. Now fifty years after the end of the Vietnam War comes an anthology of fiction that finally speaks to the global Vietnamese experience: voices of both those who left and those who stayed, what was gained and lost in the half century since, and—for the generations that followed—what it means to be Vietnamese.
More than two dozen distinct literary voices are featured in this collection, including Viet Thanh Nguyen (Pulitzer Prize winner, The Sympathizer), Andrew Lam (PEN/Beyond Margins Award winner, Perfume Dreams), Barbara Tran (Lannan Foundation Award winner, In the Mynah Bird's Own Words), Vu Tran (Whiting Award winner, Dragonfish) and many more.
The stories are as diverse in style, tone, and subject matter as the ancestral lands of the Vietnamese people. From the rubble of the Ancient Citadel in Quảng Trị to the makeshift orphanages outside Sài Gòn, from Palo Alto to a tony Lincoln Park apartment in Chicago, the narratives straddle continents and generations, the political as well as the personal. But what they share is much greater than their differences. They speak to a common language, to a culture steeped in history and myth and storytelling that vividly captures the enduring spirit of the Vietnamese people.
Editor Quan Manh Ha is Professor of English at the University of Montana and the co-translator of Other Moons: Vietnamese Short Stories of the American War and Its Aftermath, among other titles. Co-editor Cab Tran holds an MFA from University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Vagabond: Bulgaria’s English Monthly, Black Warrior Review, The Iconoclast, and elsewhere. He teaches fiction for Gotham Writers Workshop. In 2023, Ha and Tran co-translated and co-edited Bảo Ninh’s Hà Nội at Midnight.
Complete list of contributors in alphabetical order: BẢO Thương, Thuy DINH, ĐỖ Thị Diệu Ngọc, Anvi HOÀNG, HOÀNG Phượng Mai, LẠI Văn Long, Andrew LAM, LÊ Phương Anh, LÊ Vũ Trường Giang, LƯU Vĩ Lân, Vi Khi NAO, NGÔ Thế Vinh, Annhien NGUYEN, NGUYỄN Minh Chuyên, NGUYỄN Huy Cường, NGUYỄN Thị Kim Hòa, NGUYỄN Mỹ Nữ, Phùng NGUYỄN, NGUYỄN Thu Trân, NGUYỄN Đức Tùng, Viet Thanh NGUYEN, Kevin D. PHAM, Tuan PHAN, Gin TO, Barbara TRAN, Elizabeth TRAN, TRẦN Thị Tú Ngọc, Vu TRAN, VĂN Xương, Christina VO, VŨ Cao Phan, and VƯƠNG Tâm
“The Colors of April is not just a portrait of war; it delves into the psychological, cultural, and historical effects of war on a people and the lingering concerns of Vietnamese across the 50-year span from 1975 to 2025. More importantly, it raises a question for today’s readers: Like the characters in the book, how do we find reconciliation within our own identities and histories? And how can we use the lessons of the past 50 years to build a better future for the next 50?” —VietBao
"The Colors of April is a beautifully curated, deeply moving collection that gives voice to a global Vietnamese experience long overdue in contemporary literature.” —San Francisco Book Review
“Speaks with deep emotion from individuals on both sides of the historical divide, caught in the tides of time, reflecting on 50 years since the war ended and on the journey of reconciliation and harmony between the two former frontlines.” —Thời Nay, Báo Nhân Dân
“Short stories by Vietnamese and Vietnamese American authors talking about the Vietnam war from their point of view in the form of fiction. . . . They were all unique.” —Book Notions
“A poignant literary tapestry ... The narratives, diverse in voice and vision, ultimately converge to illuminate universal human struggles that transcend time and geography.” —Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
“An important anthology . . . ““We are defined not by the wars we fight, but by the stories we choose to tell,” the editors write. We, equally, can be defined by the stories we choose to read.” —The VVA Veteran Magazine
“A well-rounded view of the war and its aftermath via writers from a multitude of backgrounds, generations, circumstances, and perspectives as well as styles. Amongst the book’s 28 stories are several that contain expected themes: war is miserable; grief eclipses winners and losers; physical and emotional traumas get passed down, and reconciliation is not just possible but essential for healing.” —Saigoneer
"It took 50 years after the end of the Vietnam War for a book that brings together the perspectives of Vietnamese writers, regardless of their political affiliations or citizenship status, to be published. A significant milestone in itself." —Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Executive Director, Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN)
“Quan Manh Ha and Cab Tran have assembled a wide-ranging collection that shows the depth and richness of post-Vietnam War literature from around the globe. The Colors of April is an important anthology that acts as a bridge between two sides and, ultimately, the past and present. This will be the book I reach for when someone asks about the Vietnam War.” —Eric Nguyen, author, Things We Lost to the Water
“The Colors of April puts a human face on the experiences and consequences of war as viewed from the Vietnamese perspective. To be a fully informed citizen, this book, is, in a word, essential reading.” —Donald Anderson, editor, War, Literature & the Arts; author, Fragments of a Mortal Mind
“The stories in The Colors of April span generations—from the perspectives of native-born Vietnamese survivors to narratives from the contemporary diaspora—forming a powerful collage that bears witness and wraps the reader in the multiple realities of the Vietnam War.” —Micah Fields, author, We Hold Our Breath; Marine Corps combat veteran
Quan Manh Ha (editor) was born and grew up in Vietnam. He came to the United States at the age of 22 for graduate studies and graduated with a doctorate in English from Texas Tech University in 2011. He is currently Professor of English at the University of Montana, where he teaches and researches American literature, Vietnam War literature, multiethnic US literature, and literary translation. He is the co-translator of Other Moons, Hanoi at Midnight, The Termite Queen, Longings, and ‘Light Out’ and Modern Vietnamese Stories, 1930-1954. He lives in Missoula, Montana.
Cab Tran was born in Vietnam and emigrated to the United States with his parents during the diaspora. He holds an MFA from the University of Michigan Helen Zell Writers’ Program. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Iconoclast, Black Warrior Review, Parcel, Oleander Review, Distinctly Montana Quarterly, Missoula Independent, and elsewhere. He lives in Helena, Montana.
Introduction by the editors
War’s End by Vũ Cao Phan
In Silence, In Rain by Trần Thị Tú Ngọc
5A, 5B, DEST: SGN by Andrew Lam
Laws of Motion by Barbara Tran
The Immolation by Viet Thanh Nguyen
A Rockfall Dream by Nguyễn Thị Kim Hòa
A New Perspective by Lê Vũ Trường Giang
A Vietnamese Arrière-Boutique by Kevin D. Pham
The Fish and the Banyan Tree by Elizabeth Tran
Oakland Night Question by Phùng Nguyễn
MIA, MIO; POW, POP by Lưu Vĩ Lân
A Jarai Tribesman and His Wife by Nguyễn Đức Tùng
Country in a Glass of Water by Vi Khi Nao
The Blood Lily by Vương Tâm
Bad Things Didn’t Happen by Gin To
Night by Nguyễn Mỹ Nữ
Lost Love by Vu Tran
What the War Left Behind by Nguyễn Minh Chuyên
Chị Nhàn at the End Time by Thuy Dinh
A Mother’s Song by Annhien Nguyen
The Passed Season by Bảo Thương
Echoes by Văn Xương
Six’s Sign by Anvi Hoàng
The Việt Kiều Casanova by Tuan Phan
Kinship by Lại Văn Long
American Grass by Nguyễn Thu Trân
A Small Dream for the Year 2000 by Ngô Thế Vinh
The Return, by Christina Vo
About the Editors and Contributors
Permissions/Acknowledgments
Resources