I love Arundhati Roy's courage, integrity, intelligence, and her artistry as a writer of fiction & nonfiction. Wim Wenders, the jury chair, on being questioned about Gaza, said filmmakers have to stay out of politics. Roy said a genocide demands a response from everyone, artists included. I agree.

Returning to Stanford to give a reading, which is never just a reading for me...I'm sure I'll have many opinions to give about the state of our nation and the role of writing in relationship to speaking truths.

First time visiting Northern Arizona University! I'm delivering the Cline Lecture, and I will talk a lot about my fiction and nonfiction, particularly as they relate to war, refugees, migration, and the fears and joys of otherness.

Israeli writer Amos Oz in his novel FIMA, talking about Arab children: "Can a worthless man like me have sunk so low as to make a distinction between the intolerable killing of children and the not-so-intolerable killing of children?"

TIL that 1988's Rambo III, where Stallone inspires Afghans to rise up against the evil Soviets, was shot in Israel with many Israelis playing Afghans. Stallone and crew talk about the tensions of shooting in Israel without ever talking about why or who (nope, no Palestinians or Arabs mentioned)--

Neither Israel nor the United States can be trusted in regards to Gaza, the West Bank, or Palestine and Palestinians. This is not a cease-fire but the same death by a thousand cuts that is occupation, apartheid, and slow ethnic cleansing.

"the United States has never been a white nation and never will be one"-- Ishmael Reed www.thenation.com/article/cult...

ICE and Border Patrol are so fucking bad that we forgot about that fuckface Kash Patel and the FBI.

Apparently Latino agents murdered Alex Pretti. It’s not a shock. Many Latinos support Trump and MAGA (I say this as a Vietnamese American whose community has many such supporters).

How convenient

I love all these Vietnamese slogans

At least Leni Riefenstahl is widely considered to be a genuine artist.

IDF in the West Bank or Gaza or US army in Afghanistan or Iraq or ICE in Minneapolis?

I am beyond disgusted with my university. You can donate your cadaver out of altruism and unwittingly end up aiding a genocide, as the IDF took a third of the bodies.

Here’s the video. It’s the American way to gang up on a man and shoot him? Where’s the threat? Sorry, it is in fact the American way.

If you're in LA, come to this symposium tomorrow on inspiring civic action and building democracy at the Japanese American National Museum. I'll be speaking at 11AM. Hear from keynote speakers Agnès Callamard of Amnesty International, Robert Evans... www.janm.org/events/2026-...

My high school classmate Richard Tsong-Taatarii @rtsongphoto took this photo. He's doing incredible work in Minnesota. In the video I saw, the ICE officer walks up very deliberately, leans down, and sprays this person right in the face when they've already been restrained.

You're for this or you're against this. There's no middle here.

TO SAVE AND TO DESTROY: WRITING AS AN OTHER makes it to the shortlist in the criticism category for the National Book Critics Circle Award, in the stellar company of many deserving finalists.

The man is Hmong. An American citizen. A grandfather. Humiliated and terrified. Returned an hour later with no apology, not that one would have done. As with Renee Good—this could happen to anyone.

I’m delighted to be a part of this: in-person panel at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival for The Story of Us, which presents “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” on 1/22 @ 7pm in Park City, UT. (1/7)

How much longer before the current administration attempts to abolish Martin Luther King Jr Day?

I wrote about one of Martin Luther King Jr's most radical and important speeches, "Beyond Vietnam," which even many of his followers have never read. time.com/5505453/mart...

Anti-ICE protest in Northeast LA! Here’s your basic Vietnamese language lesson. Can you figure it out?

Los Angeles: I’ll be in conversation with poet Yahya Ashour after his reading at USC this Friday afternoon. From Gaza, he found himself in exile in the United States after October 7. A powerful poet and a dynamic speaker. RSVP with the QR code or link in comment; there will be a reception afterwards

I host a podcast on Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diasporic arts with Philip Nguyen. This Thursday at 6PM Pacific time we talk with Vu Tran (author of the noir drama DRAGONFISH) and Thi Bui (creator of the graphic memoir THE BEST WE COULD DO). rsvp for free for our conversation bit.ly/ACCENTED52

Still not hearing from the All Lives Matter crowd. Or the Don’t Tread on Me patriots.

Watch the breakdown of the videos of an ICE agent shooting Renee Nicole Good. She did not him with her car, she was turning away with her car when he shot her at point blank range. This was murder.

An ICE agent shot a woman to death in her car as she attempted to drive away. He was not in danger. She was not trying to hit him. You can watch her killing in multiple videos and judge for yourself. Meanwhile, at least 30 Asian immigrants died in ICE custody. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

I'm an executive producer on this short documentary, WE WERE THE SCENERY, which is on the Oscars shortlist for best short doc (the preliminary stage before the nominations). You must watch it! And you can do so now, on Vimeo, where it's a staff pick for Best of the Year. 1/3 vimeo.com/1139491180

Not sure about a hundred, but in 1985 the Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on MOVE, a Black community, and killed eleven. Police were also central to the 1921 Tulsa massacre, where a white mob killed from 50 to 300 Black people. The Texas Rangers killed 15 unarmed Mexican American men in 1918.

From world's policeman to rogue state is what the Guardian says. If anyone knows anything about American policemen, they know that it's a very fine line from "to protect and to serve" to kneeling with a knee on someone's neck.

A big mob boss just took out a small mob boss

I’m old enough to remember when the Iraqis were supposedly going to welcome US “liberators” with open arms.

New year, new war. The USA is a warmongering nation.

Misplaced my phone for a day and read a 200 page novel. This is a signal.

More Great Leader moves. Along with renaming its Opera Center for Melania. I hope these people are so stupid they don't realize that the next Democratic administration will eradicate any name changes. Because if they're not that stupid, they are betting on fascism. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...

A very good day. TO SAVE AND TO DESTROY: WRITING AS AN OTHER from Harvard is longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism. I am grateful for the support from HUP, from editor Sharmila Sen to publicist Amanda Ice. And WE WERE THE SCENERY is on the Oscars shortlist

A horrific attack. No one should be killed because of their religion, identity,culture or nationality. No one at all should fear violence like this. And Ahmed Al Ahmed’s act of courage can be seen by all on video…a man without a gun saving others from men with guns.

I'm sure you've heard of the movie THE STRINGER, from director Bao Nguyen. It makes the controversial claim that one of the most famous photos of the war in Viet Nam–Phan Thị Kim Phúc, burned by napalm and running in terror and pain–wasn't taken by Nick Ut but by a "stringer," Nguyễn Thành Nghệ.

Finally saw ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER...an overrated, but good, movie. Not great. The dearth of political art is so prevalent in American culture that this movie is being hailed as great political art. The movie cites THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, which is great political art. But like many Hollywood movies

The French really love bandes dessinées (comics). Here is Le Sympathisant, written by Antoine Ozanam, illustrated by Jai Baek, colors by Greg Guilhaumond, from Phileas. It's huge and beautiful and I thought it was spectacular.

VOICES FOR GAZA brought together Palestinian writers, activists, & their allies. Before hundreds, the speakers demonstrated one of the most important values that can sustain us in a time of seemingly unending mourning, resistance, and struggle: solidarity. Here, we hear from Mahmoud Khlail (1/2).

VOICES FOR GAZA brought together Palestinian writers, activists, & their allies. Before hundreds, the speakers demonstrated one of the most important values that can sustain us in a time of seemingly unending mourning, resistance, and struggle: solidarity. In this post, we hear from Nan Goldin.

I believe the major criteria for receiving an award now at the Kennedy Center is being willing to accept one.

I want to live in a world that respects justice, so I am supporting Public Counsel, a great organization that provides pro bono law for children, families, veterans, students, immigrants, nonprofits and small businesses.

This is straight from joseph Heller‘s Catch-22. We wouldn’t have had to kill them if they just let themselves drown.

Just simply amazing that Democrats can now clearly see on video that an unjustified killing has taken place...while denying what was clearly being shown on video from Gaza.