Caroline Vu
{{short description|Canadian novelist of Vietnamese heritage}}
{{COI|date=February 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}}
{{infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL}}
Early life and education
Vu was born in 1959 in Dalat, Vietnam (South Vietnam) and grew up in Saigon. At the age of eleven, she immigrated with her mother and brother to Connecticut. The family later relocated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
She has degrees in political science from McGill University, in Psychology from Concordia University, and in medicine from the University of Montreal.{{Cite web|title=Caroline Vu|url=https://www.pleinelune.qc.ca/auteur/442/vu-caroline|access-date=2021-11-17|website=Pleine Lune|language=fr}}
Career
Vu's writings deal with issues of identity and memory, and immigration from Asia (especially Vietnam) to Canada. Her first novel, Palawan Story, was published by the Deux Voiliers Publishing collective in 2014."Sean Michaels emerges as a double QWF finalist; Two other writers pull off the coup of being named to the list twice". The Gazette (Montreal), 15 October 2014.{{Cite web|title=Deux Voiliers Publishing's Palawan Story Page|url=https://www.deuxvoilierspublishing.com/palawan-story|access-date=2021-11-17|website=publishing|language=en}} It won the 2016 Fred Kerner Book Award for the best book by a member of the Canadian Authors Association{{Cite news|url=http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2016/06/23/awards-nino-ricci-joe-denham-kayla-czaga-win-caa-awards/|title=Awards: Nino Ricci, Joe Denham, Caroline Vu among CAA Award winners|newspaper=Quill and Quire|date=23 June 2016}} and was a finalist for the 2014 Concordia University First Book Prize awarded by the Quebec Writers' Federation.{{Cite news|url=http://www.quillandquire.com/awards/2014/10/16/quebec-writers-federation-releases-literary-award-shortlists/|title=Quebec Writers' Federation releases literary award shortlists|date=16 October 2014|newspaper=Quill and Quire}} Palawan Story was translated and published in French by Les Éditions de la Pleine Lune in August 2017.{{Cite web|title=Caroline Vu|url=https://www.pleinelune.qc.ca/auteur/442/vu-caroline|access-date=2021-11-18|website=Pleine Lune|language=fr}}
The novel takes its name from the island of Palawan in the Philippines, where over half a million Vietnamese refugees were placed in a camp from 1979 to 1993.{{Cite web|title=Refugee Camps|url=https://refugeecamps.net/PalawanCamp.html|access-date=2021-11-17|website=refugeecamps.net}} It tells the story of a young girl named Kim who through a stroke of luck is able to leave the camp at Palawan and build a life for herself first in Connecticut and then in Montreal, struggling as an adult to comprehend the chaotic history of her homeland that she had glimpsed through the eyes of a child.
Vu's second novel, That Summer in Provincetown, was published in 2015 in English by Guernica Editions."Secrets And War; New novel digs deep into Vietnamese family's complicated past". Calgary Herald, 18 July 2015.{{Cite web|title=That Summer in Provincetown - Guernica Editions|url=https://www.guernicaeditions.com/title/9781771830355|access-date=2021-11-18|website=www.guernicaeditions.com}} In 2016, Les Éditions de la Pleine Lune published the French translation, Un été à Provincetown. It is about three generations of a Vietnamese family who immigrate from Vietnam to Canada. As in Vu's first novel, Provincetown gives human insight into Vietnamese history.{{Cite web|last=Shaw|first=Ian Thomas|date=2015-05-01|title=That Summer in Provincetown by Caroline Vu|url=https://www.ottawareviewofbooks.com/single-post/2015/05/01/that-summer-in-provincetown-by-caroline-vu|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-18|website=ottawareviewofbooks|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815102914/https://www.ottawareviewofbooks.com/single-post/2015/05/01/That-Summer-in-Provincetown-by-Caroline-Vu |archive-date=15 August 2020 }}{{Cite web|last=Block|first=Irwin|date=2015-10-30|title=Book review: That Summer in Provincetown|url=http://www.theseniortimes.com/book-review-that-summer-in-provincetown/|access-date=2021-11-18|website=The Senior Times|language=en-US}}
Vu has also published articles in a variety of newspapers, including The Medical Post, the Toronto Star, the Montreal Gazette, The Geneva Times, and The Tico Times.{{Cite web|title=Concordia alumna nominated for prestigious First Book Prize - The Concordian|url=https://theconcordian.com/2014/10/concordia-alumna-nominated-for-prestigious-first-book-prize/|access-date=2021-11-17|language=en-CA}}
Bibliography
- Palawan Story (novel) 2014
- That Summer in Provinceton (novel) 2015
- Un été à Provincetown (translated novel) 2016 – French translation of That Summer in Provincetown
- Palawan (translated novel) 2017 – French Translation of Palawan Story
- Television Voices (short story) 2017
Personal life
Vu practices medicine in Montreal, where she lives with her two daughters.{{Cite news|date=8 July 2015|title=Caroline Vu's That Summer in Provincetown digs deep into a Vietnamese family's past|newspaper=The Gazette|location=Montreal|url=https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/books/caroline-vu-that-summer-in-provincetown-digs-deep-into-a-vietnamese-familys-past}} She is the widow of Mario Laguë, who was Canadian ambassador to Costa Rica from 2004 to 2007{{Cite web|date=2014-08-27|title=Former expat in Costa Rica launches novel about Vietnam|url=https://ticotimes.net/2014/08/27/former-expat-in-costa-rica-launches-novel-about-vietnam|access-date=2021-11-22|website=The Tico Times {{!}} Costa Rica News {{!}} Travel {{!}} Real Estate|language=en-US}}
References
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Category:Vietnamese emigrants to Canada
Category:21st-century Canadian women writers
Category:Canadian writers of Asian descent
Category:Canadian women novelists
Category:21st-century Canadian novelists
Category:Université de Montréal alumni
Category:Concordia University alumni