Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) Information

The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN)’s primary mission is to promote voices and stories of the Vietnamese diaspora through nurturing writers, poets and artists, and connecting their work to readers, audience, and diasporic communities all over the globe. DVAN began in 2007 due to the recognition that Vietnamese Americans, compared to other Asian Americans, were underrepresented in both academia and popular culture. At the time we originated, less than 50 books and short story collections by and about Vietnamese Americans had been published by nationally recognized publishers. Today that number is higher, but there is still a need for a much broader, more diverse range of stories by and about Vietnamese diasporic writers and artists to be circulating. Vietnamese diasporic filmmakers and visual artists are similarly underrepresented. Such selective publishing, film and art world practices prevent the society at large from understanding the complex experiences, history and culture of a growing community, as well from recognizing the impact our diasporic communities and we as individuals have in society. Our belief is that in coming together as a group across national boundaries, we have the potential to bring forth new ideas about identity and citizenship. Ultimately, we aim to be active agents of social change by encouraging self-determination and dialogues for the purpose of healing and full incorporation in the fabric of society. Our co-founder, Viet Thanh Nguyen, has spoken about the need for narrative plenitude to combat the limits and poverties of narrative scarcity that have been the cultural norm for minority groups. In short, we need more stories—and more types, styles, voices, genres of storytelling—in order to accurately reflect the plurality of our collectivity, and make evident the diversities and complexities within our communities.