Vietnam War (and Antiwar) Literature 17
Yusef Komunyakaa (1947– )
Born James Willie Brown Jr., a poet who received the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for
Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems, 1977–1989 (1993). He served in Vietnam
with the United States Army (1965–1967) and was awarded a Bronze Star. His
works include Copacetic (1983), I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head (1986), Dien
Cai Dau (1988), Talking Dirty to the Gods (2001), and Pleasure Dome: New & Col-
lected Poems, 1975–1999 (2001).
Ron Kovic (1946– )
Writer and activist who served in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968 and was awarded a
Bronze Star with the “V” device for valor and a Purple Heart. His memoir, Born on
the Fourth of July (1976), was adapted into the 1989 film of the same title. For this
work, Kovic and Oliver Stone received a Golden Globe Award for best screenplay
and were nominated for an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.
Andrew Lam (1964– )
Writer and editor with Pacific News Service and regular commentator on
National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. His essays have appeared in
The Nation, The New York Times, Mother Jones, The San Francisco Chronicle, and
the Baltimore Sun. Some of them are collected in Reflections on the Vietnamese
Diaspora (2005). He was born in Saigon and left in the 1975 exodus.
Christian Langworthy (1967– )
Poet and writer of prose, born Nguyên Văn Phu,o,ng in Vietnam and adopted in
1975 by American parents after being brought to the United States in Operation
Babylift. He is the author of the chapbook The Geography of War (1995).
lê thi diêm thúy (1972– )
Performance artist, poet, and author of The Gangster We Are All Looking For
(2003). She was born in Phan Thiet, South Vietnam, and raised in Southern
California after leaving Vietnam in 1978.
Denise Levertov (1923–1997)
Poet who became a naturalized American citizen. She helped found the Writers
and Artists against the War in Vietnam movement. Poems from her career have
been collected in Poems 1972–1982 (2001) and Selected Poems (2002).
Norman Mailer (1923–2007)
Writer whose The Armies of the Night (1968), about his participation in an
anti–Vietnam War march on the Pentagon in 1967, won the Pulitzer Prize and
National Book Award in 1969.
Bobbie Ann Mason (1940– )
Fiction writer and literary scholar whose works include Shiloh and Other Stories
(1982), In Country (1986), Spence + Lila (1989), Love Life: Stories (1989), and
Feather Crowns (1993).
Walter McDonald (1934– )
Writer who served in Vietnam in 1969–1970. He has published one collection of
stories, A Band of Brothers (1989), and twenty-two collections of poems, including