{{short description|American novelist and nonfiction writer (born 1974)}} {{infobox writer |name = Beth Nguyen |birth_name = Bich Minh Nguyen |birth_date = {{birth year and age|1974}} |birth_place = Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |occupation = {{flatlist| *Novelist *writer }} |nationality = American |education = University of Michigan (MFA) |genre = |spouse = |website = {{URL|https://www.bethminhnguyen.com}} }} '''Beth Minh Nguyen''' ({{nee|'''Bich Minh Nguyen'''}}, born 1974) is an American novelist and nonfiction writer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://penguinspeakersbureau.com/speaker/201|title = Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau: Award-Winning Authors + Writers}}</ref> She is the author of the novels ''Short Girls'' (2009), which won a 2010 American Book Award, and ''Pioneer Girl'' (2014). She has also written two memoirs, ''Stealing Buddha's Dinner'' (2008) and ''Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir'' (2023).
== Life == Bich Minh Nguyen was born in 1974 in Saigon, which her family fled by ship the following year. After staying in refugee camps in Guam and at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, they settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Nguyen grew up.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bich Minh Nguyen |url=http://www.kwls.org/authors/bich-minh-nguyen/ |website=Key West Literary Seminar |access-date=29 March 2024}}</ref>
She graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master of Fine Arts. In 2005, she received a PEN/Jerard Award for her 2008 memoir ''Stealing Buddha's Dinner''.<ref name="PenAmerica">{{cite web |title=PEN/Jerard Fund Award Winners |url=https://pen.org/penjerard-fund-award-winners/ |website=PEN America |date=5 May 2016 |access-date=22 May 2020}}</ref> She taught at Purdue University and the University of San Francisco, and is currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she teaches fiction and creative non-fiction writing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nguyen, Beth (Bich Minh) |url=https://english.wisc.edu/staff/nguyen-beth-bich-minh/|date= 30 August 2019|website=English |language=en-US |access-date=2020-05-21}}</ref>
Nguyen changed her preferred name to "Beth" some time before 2021. She discussed the change in an essay in ''The New Yorker''.<ref name="NewYorkerRuined">{{cite magazine |last1=Nguyen |first1=Beth |title=America Ruined My Name for Me |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/america-ruined-my-name-for-me |access-date=28 March 2024 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=1 April 2021}}</ref>
Nguyen married fellow novelist Porter Shreve in 2002.<ref name="NYTWedding">{{cite news |title=WEDDINGS; Bich Nguyen, Porter Shreve |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/02/style/weddings-bich-nguyen-porter-shreve.html |access-date=29 March 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=June 2, 2002}}</ref> Nguyen stated she was divorced in 2023.<ref>{{Cite tweet |number=1758304608512790862 |user=bethminhnguyen |title=I got divorced last year so my opinion on these essays means a lot more than many other people's opinions ok?! |first=Beth |last=Nguyen |date=15 February 2024 |access-date=2024-03-29}}</ref><ref name="LunchTicket">{{cite news |last1=Iversen |first1=Liz |title=What's Ours to Tell: An interview with Beth Nguyen |url=https://lunchticket.org/whats-ours-to-tell-an-interview-with-beth-nguyen/ |access-date=29 March 2024 |work=Lunch Ticket |date=7 June 2023}}</ref>
== Works == * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_3ggUy4GScC&q=Bich+Minh+Nguyen| title=Stealing Buddha's Dinner | publisher= Penguin| year= 2008| isbn= 978-0-14-311303-4 }} * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghq5arAh6xkC| title=Short Girls: A Novel | publisher= Penguin| year= 2009| isbn= 978-0-670-02081-2 }} * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9WY2AAAAQBAJ| title=Pioneer Girl: A Novel | publisher= Penguin| year= 2014| isbn= 978-0-698-15137-6 }} * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YR-UEAAAQBAJ| title=Owner of a Lonely Heart: A Memoir | publisher= Penguin| year= 2023| isbn= 978-1-982-19634-9 }}
=== Anthologies === * {{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KVzEBNFl8l8C&q=Bich+Minh+Nguyen&pg=PA372| chapter=The Good Immigrant Student| title=Thin ice: coming of age in Grand Rapids |editor1= Reinder Van Til |editor2=Gordon L. Olson | publisher= Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing| year= 2007 | isbn=978-0-8028-2478-3 }} * {{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fsn4P6hyH48C&q=Bich+Minh+Nguyen&pg=PA104| chapter=The Plum's Eye| title=Bread, Body, Spirit: Finding the Sacred in Food | editor= Alice Peck| publisher= SkyLight Paths Publishing| year= 2008| isbn= 978-1-59473-242-3 }} * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SBzzgTV6GvgC&q=Bich+Minh+Nguyen&pg=PA66| title=An angle of vision | editor= Lorraine López| publisher= University of Michigan Press| year= 2009| isbn= 978-0-472-05078-9 }}
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.bethminhnguyen.com Author's website] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7qSOMaxEM8&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1 "Welcome to the Great Michigan Read"], Bich Minh Nguyen * [https://web.archive.org/web/20101203124231/http://www.kwls.org/lit/2011/bio.cfm?Auth_id=229 "Bich Minh Nguyen"], ''29th Key West Literary Seminar''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Bich Minh}} Category:Living people Category:1974 births Category:21st-century American novelists Category:21st-century American women novelists Category:American novelists of Asian descent Category:American writers of Vietnamese descent Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:Vietnamese emigrants to the United States Category:Vietnamese writers Category:American Book Award winners Category:English-language literature of Vietnam