Đặng Thân, Vietnamese writer and poet
Đặng Thân is a bilingual poet, fiction writer, essayist and critic, based in Vietnam. There he is regarded "the typical figure of Post-Doi Moi Literature", and considered "the best humourist ever" and even an "awesomely brilliant genius". Unfortunately, it was repeatedly said that leading governmental departments in Vietnam instructed the "state-controlled" literary circle that his works were "harmful". From 2008 up to 2011 and from 2014 up to present, all publishing houses there had not been allowed to print any book of his for no righteous reasons, and official state-run newspapers had been ordered to leave him in the dark.
In the feature article, "Demilitarized Zone: Report From Literary Vietnam", the New York-based Poets & Writers wrote of Thân: "In the literary circles he runs in, Dang is praised for his idiosyncratic prose and rebellious style."Đặng Thân's officially-published works in various genres, especially novels, have been widely recognised and created the utmost important turning-point in writing style of Vietnamese literature. He is the representative of a completely-new way of discourse with alternative lexical resources in preference of connotation rather than the commonly-old usage of denotation. He pioneers Vietnamese alliteration poetry and a new style named phac-nhien.
Đặng Thân's poetry has been translated into many other foreign languages such as Chinese, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Bengali, Serbian, Catalan and Greek. So far his poetry has garnered prestigious international prizes: 2020 Naji Naaman Literary Prize, Premio Il Meleto di Guido Gozzano 2020, Panorama Global Award, Cape Comorin Best Poetry Award and Premio I Colori del’Anima 2021. Also, he has become the first Vietnamese author having poems exhibited and housed at the World Museum of Poetry in Piacenza, Italy.