The pressures on young, emerging writers weigh heavily on Nguyen, who has witnessed similar struggles among his students at the University of Southern California.
“Young writers here, they’re like writers everywhere. They’re afraid of not getting published. They’re afraid of not having a life in the audience,” Nguyen said.
Those fears can lead to life-altering decisions, Nguyen explained. “I’ve had a writer who is trans. They left the US a few weeks ago, terrified, and removed themselves to another country.”
When he talks to his students, he emphasises the time and difficulty involved in pursuing a career in writing, no matter the circumstances.
“What I try to do with those writers is impress upon them that it took 30 years of misery to get to where I am. Every writer is alone. You have to cultivate discipline within yourself to confront that solitude.”
But even so, those closest to Nguyen wonder about the toll his writing and public activism can take.
Thi Bui, a cartoonist, first bonded with Nguyen during a writers’ residency run by the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN). They have collaborated on a children’s book in the years since.
Bui told Al Jazeera that she admires the way Nguyen takes on each of his roles — writer, activist, father — with equal strength.
“He takes things head-on,” she said. “He channels his anger into writing fast.”
But she has also noticed the pressure he faces for speaking out, even at times when silence might be easier.
“He’s always carrying more than he lets on,” Bui said. “Even when he’s joking or smiling, you can feel the heaviness behind it. I sometimes worry about that. As much as he works on the world, there’s always a lot of trauma he’s had to grapple with.”
But for Nguyen, speaking out is part of his cultural framework — an inextricable part of himself.
“I grew up Catholic. Pope Francis just died, and I’ve been thinking about him,” he said. “That tradition taught me about justice — not as a slogan, but something spiritual. Jesus was a truth-teller. That mattered.”
His writing, he says, is tied to that spiritual inheritance.
“I carry that obligation with me.”