Registration opens:
March 18th, 2025 7:00pm

A Discussion with Authors Vinh Nguyen and S. Thammavongsa

in partnership with Words Worth Books

For Adults

About the Event

Join Vinh Nguyen in discussion about his new release The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse with Souvankham Thammavongsa (author of How to Pronounce Knife) for a conversation on literary craft, refugee families, and life writing.

Presented in partnership with Words Worth Books.

About Vinh Nguyen

Vinh Nguyen is a writer and associate professor at Renison University College, University of Waterloo. He is the author of the academic book Lived Refuge: Gratitude, Resentment, Resilience and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives and Refugee States: Critical Refugee Studies in Canada. He is a nonfiction editor at The New Quarterly.

About The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse

With the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the U.S. war in Vietnam ended, but the refugee crisis was only beginning. Among the millions of people who fled Vietnam by boat was Vinh Nguyen, along with his mother and siblings, and his father, who left separately and then mysteriously vanished.

Decades later, Nguyen goes looking for answers. What he discovers is a sea of questions drifting above sunken truths. To find his father—and anchor himself in the present—Nguyen must piece together the debris of history with family stories that have been scattered across generations and continents, kept for years in broken hearts and guarded silences.

As the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War approaches, The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse takes readers on a poignant tour of disappeared refugee camps, abandoned family homes, and imagined lives.

Part fractured reminiscence, part invented history, and part fictional fabulation, Nguyen’s story is about learning to live with what’s already lost and the memories of what might have been.

Photography Notice: Please note that photographs and videos may be taken at this event and may be broadcast, reproduced, and/or made available in print or online. For individual or small group photos, staff will make attendees aware of their presence and will ask permission before taking photos.

For larger public events, please note that by attending, you are consenting to the use of your appearance, image, and voice in print or digital productions created by the Waterloo Public Library for promotional use only. Please speak to library staff at the event if you’d like to be excluded from any photo/video. 

Programmer: Nancy