The T.S. Eliot Prize: “Night Sky with Exit Wounds” by Ocean Vuong

Poet Ocean Vuong spent the first two years of his life in a refugee camp. When he was two, he, His mother, and grandmother settled in the United States. He never knew his father. He grew up hearing the stories of Vietnam from his mother and grandmother. Born in a country he can’t remember, and with a father he never knew, and likely asking questions that could never be answered, Vuong did what many of us might do.

He created a past life. Part of that creation became Night Sky with Exit Wounds, which won the 2016 Whiting Award and has now won the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize.

The collection is comprised of some 35 poems. Several of the poems are directly about his father, and Vuong imagines different reasons (and realities) for not knowing him.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.