Quang Nhuong Huynh

Infobox Writer
name = Quang Nhuong Huynh


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birthdate = birth date|1946|08|22
birthplace = Berkeley, California, United States
deathdate = Death year and age|2001|1946
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occupation = Writer, Playright
nationality = Vietnamese
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notableworks = Water Buffalo Days, The Land I Lost
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Quang Nhuong Huynh (August 22, 1946cite web|url=http://www.tuvy.com/resource/books/authors/h/Huynh_Quang.html|title=About The Author - Quang Nhuong Huynh|date=2001|publisher=tuvy.com|accessdate=2008-07-23] —2001) is a Vietnamese author. He has written two books, and has received several awards for his autobiographical work The Land I Lost. Huynh is credited as being the first Vietnamese to write fiction and non-fiction in English.

Biography

Huynh was born August 22, 1946 in My Tho, Vietnam to the parents Huynh Miu Van, and Kiem Thi. Huynh then enrolled in Saigon University for Chemistry, earning his degree in 1962. After the outbreak of the Vietnam War, Huynh was drafted into the South Vietnamese army, where he reached the rank of first lieutenant, and received a gold and a silver medal. Huynh was shot and paralyzed during the war, resulting in his trip to the United States in 1963 for physical therapy.

Huynh decided to stay in the United States, and earned an M.A. in Comparative Literature in 1971 from Long Island University, and in 1973 he got an M.A. in French from the University of Missouri-Columbia. His writing career was then begun when his book The Land I Lost was published in 1982. The book won several awards, and was translated into several languages. In the early 1990s, Huynh also had some success as a playwright, and in 1990 he was awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1997, Huynh published his other book that was titled Water Buffalo Days. Similar to "The Life I Lost", the book focused on his life — more specifically his childhood. Four years later, Huynh died. He was the first Vietnamese to write fiction and nonfiction in English.

Awards and recognition

Huynh's first book, The Land I Lost, won several awards. It received the ALA Notable Children’s Book award, the ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice award, the Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies (NCSS/CBC), the Library of Congress Children’s Books award, the William Allen White Children's Book Award (Kansas), [cite web|url=http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Kids/BookDetail.aspx?isbn13=9780064401838|title=The Land I Lost|date=2006|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers|accessdate=2008-07-23] the Friends of American Writers Award, and the Blue Cobra Award.cite web|url=http://whmc.umsystem.edu/invent/3997.html|title=Huynh, Quang Nhuong (1936-2001), Papers, 1956-2000 (C3997)|date=1996-2002|publisher=University of Missouri System|accessdate=2008-07-23] In 1990, Huynh received a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

References