Please join Black Mountain Institute for a reading with Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, author of Dust Child and The Mountains Sing. She will be introduced by UNLV MFA Candidate Annie Livingston. This reading will also feature performances by the Vietnamese American actress and audiobook narrator Quyên Ngô.
Born and raised in Việt Nam, Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is the author of the international best-seller The Mountains Sing, which won multiple awards including the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award and the 2020 BookBrowse Best Debut Award. She has published twelve books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in Vietnamese and English, and her writing has been translated into twenty languages. Her new novel, Dust Child, published in March 2023, has been selected as a best book of 2023 by Reader's Digest and Cosmopolitan, a best Book of March/Spring 2023 by the Los Angeles Times, Amazon, Library Journal, the Chicago Review of Books, Ms. Magazine, BookPage, and Apple Books. It has also been voted by booksellers around the country as an Indie Next Great Read.
Quyên Ngô is an actor, organizer, and trainer based in Los Angeles. She is the narrator of Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai's Dust Child, as well as her debut novel, The Mountains Sing, which was a Finalist for the 2021 Audie award for Audiobook of the Year. She began her acting journey in middle school and continued training during her time at Brown University, where she also ventured into radio and voice acting. She is a translator of Vietnamese poetry and prose and believes both narration and translation work are sacred arts.
Parking/getting there: Parking on UNLV’s campus is free and open to all after 7pm; “reserved” parking spots are enforced 24 hours a day, but you may park in any “staff,” “student,” or paid spots. To find the Rogers Literature & Law Building, please turn onto East Harmon Ave and take it as far as you can into campus. We encourage you to park in Lot I or Lot J as they’re closest to our building.
Questions? Please email blackmountaininstitute@unlv.edu or call (702) 895-5542.
This program is supported in part by Nevada Humanities.