Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago

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Ocean Vuong, the award-winning author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and the poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother, is treasured by readers for his ability to harness tenderness and grace in the toughest of subjects. Vuong joins us to discuss his newest novel, The Emperor of Gladness, which shows us the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a story of chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

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