Night Sky with Exit Wounds

Written by Ocean Vuong

Narrated by Keong Sim

WINNER of the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize



A New York Times Top 10 Book of 2016



"There is a powerful emotional undertow to these poems that springs from Mr. Vuong's sincerity and candor, and from his ability to capture specific moments in time with both photographic clarity and a sense of the evanescence of all earthly things." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times



Library Journal 2016 Best Books of the Year WINNER, 2016 Whiting Award WINNER, 2017 Publishing Triangle's Thom Gunn Award FINALIST, 2017 Kate Tufts Discovery Award FINALIST, 2017 Lambda Literary Award FINALIST



In his haunting and fearless debut, Ocean Vuong walks a tightrope of historic and personal violences, creating an interrogation of the American body as a borderless space of both failure and triumph. At once vulnerable and redemptive, dreamlike and visceral, compassionate and unforgiving, these poems seek a myriad existence without forgetting the prerequisite of self-preservation in a world bent on extinguishing its othered voices. Vuong's poems show, through breath, cadence, and unrepentant enthrallment, that a gentle palm on a chest can calm the most necessary of hungers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: May 27, 2025
• ISBN: 9798855588187

Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong (Ciudad Ho Chi Minh, antes Saigón, 1988) es un poeta, ensayista y novelista vietnamita-americano. En 1990, tras pasar un año en un campo de refugiados en Filipinas, emigró a Estados Unidos con su familia. Estudió Literatura Inglesa del Siglo XIX en el Brooklyn College y un posgrado en poesía en la Universidad de Nueva York (NYU). En 2014 recibió la beca Ruth Lilly / Sargent Rosenberg de la Poetry Foundation, y con el poemario Cielo nocturno con heridas de fuego ganó el Whiting Award y el Forward Prize en Estados Unidos y el Premio T. S. Eliot en Inglaterra. Tras publicar sus poemas y ensayos en medios como The Atlantic, Harper’s, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker y The New York Times, en 2019 (el mismo año que recibía una beca MacArthur Grant) publicó su primera novela, En la Tierra somos fugazmente grandiosos, que maravilló de inmediato a crítica y a público: «Decir que es una primera novela deslumbrante es quedarse corto… La novela, que además desgrana con crudeza los dramas de la inmigración, está hilvanada por pasajes de verdadera belleza y originalidad a los que se les une un gran manejo de poderosas metáforas que funcionan como mantras y actúan como garras que atrapan con su fuerza al lector» (Laura Ferrero, ABC); «[El protagonista] encuentra belleza y felicidad en los márgenes de los márgenes de la raza y el género, pero también dolor, y Vuong brilla especialmente cuando muestra la escasa distancia que existe entre las unas y el otro con una prosa lírica y de rara perfección» (Patricio Pron, Babelia). Fue finalista del Premio PEN/Faulkner de Ficción (2020) y candidato al National Book Award de Ficción (2019). El emperador de Alegría es su segunda novela. Vuong vive en Northampton y es profesor en el Amherst College de Massachusetts.

Reviews for Night Sky with Exit Wounds

[faedemon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

i think i’m never going to have a mind for poetry, and that’s alright. the words are beautiful anyways; i can taste their arrangement, their art, even if i don’t understand what they’re trying to say. a listener can be attentive without comprehension. or something.

in particular, i liked ‘Because It’s Summer,’ ‘Seventh Circle of Earth,’ ‘Notebook Fragments,’ and ‘Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong.’

[booklove2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed Ocean Vuong's novel 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous', so I thought I'd try his poetry. As much as I'm sure my brain can not actually appreciate how great these poems are, as poetry just falls right into the black hole of my mind and doesn't untangle. I think the sentences of his novel just work better for me, in a sentence format way. I'm waiting for a second novel! Great imagery here though. I do not regret reading this as the rare book of poetry I have actually picked up.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This award-winning collection of poetry showcases Vuong's talent for brutal imagery and evocative wordplay. Though I can't say how many, if any, are truly autobiographical, it appears that the poet draws on his own family history and experience as immigrants from Vietnam after surviving war, and his own experiences as a gay man, for much of his material. "Aubade with Burning City," for example, starts with a note that Armed Forces Radio gave the code to evacuate Saigon in 1975 by playing "White Christmas" and proceeds to intersperse lines from the song throughout in a brilliant, intense poem intertwining a man and woman in a hotel with war in the city. "Self Portrait as Exit Wounds" was another favorite of mine, using the symbolic language of a bullet's path to bring us through several intense scenes. I didn't always "get it." I had trouble with some of the more abstract language, trying to figure out what he was describing. One poem, with numbers scattered down the page and the language actually in notes at the bottom of the page, had a form that distracted me from really appreciating it. Overall, I'm glad I read it.

[hippielunatic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Intimate and delicate explorations of the big issues facing each human - family, love, romance, grief, ennui.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read every word but understand only a shattered world of painful shards of cut and held connections and a constant imagery of grenades and their potential to destroy.

[jphamilton-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I find myself reading Ocean Vuong's work backwards in time. I felt I had to read On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, after all the richly-deserved and glorious reviews, and now I spin back to this previously published collection of poetry. After reading the much more accessible poetry of James Tate and Ron Padgett, washing up on the shores of Ocean Vuong's poetry, meant that I had to engage my mind more, as his poetry is more cerebral in nature. Maybe I'm just in a lazy state of mind, but his poetry didn't impress me half as much as his stunning fiction.

[ellegato · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I honestly don't know what to say beyond this is the best collection of poetry I've read this year. I don't know how to adequately portray how good this book is. Vuong's use of language, violence, love, grief, anger, and memory is so exacting, so powerful...if you love poetry, read this. Now.

[over.the.edge · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Night Sky With Exit Wounds????
By Ocean Vuong
2016
Cooper Canyon Press

This volume of poetry centers on the emotions and emotional states that make us all human....love, family, loneliness, grief, sadness. This is a new author for me, but I really enjoyed the heart and soul of its poems. Very personal, but also easy to relate to on a personal level. He captures the feelings so perfectly. I will be looking for more from this clever and spirited poet.

[poetontheone · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The title is very much apt, since this collection is a visceral topography of the author's personal and family history, invoking both his Vietnamese heritage and his sexuality through images and language that are bloody, frightening, tender, and even playful. Vuong has a great command of tone and line, and his voice is more evidence that we are living in an exciting time for contemporary poetics.

[shawislandlibrary · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fascinating new voice. The language flirts with all sorts of sensibilities: hints of the author's Vietnamese heritage, gentle explorations of sexuality, an almost-magical-realism at times. (Brian)