Writing About Vietnamese Heritage
Thao Thai
Novelist
The Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) are jointly hosting a campus visit by novelist Thao Thai, who will be in Madison this month as a featured author at the Wisconsin Book Festival for her most recent book, The Seekers of Deer Creek.
At the October 16 campus event, Ms. Thai will be in conversation with Asian Languages & Literature Professor Nhu Truong on the craft of writing, describing the recent past, Vietnamese heritage, and much more. The Seekers of Deer Creek is Ms. Thai’s second novel. It moves from the Wisconsin woods to a glittering estate in the French countryside to a sprawling ancestral home teetering on the edge of a ravine in Việt Nam, to tell a story of sisters, art, and the irresistible gravity of the past — how it endures across time and generations, always present even when buried. Thao Thai is also the author of Banyan Moon, the July 2023 Read with Jenna title, Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, and Book of the Month selection. Ms. Thai was the recipient of the 2024 Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Excellence Award, and her work has been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, WIRED, Elle, Lit Hub, and other publications.