Kevin Nguyen
"Fiction and nonfiction sound like opposites, but they are complementary pursuits. Writing — whether it's novels or journalism — requires rigor, compassion, and creativity.”
Kevin Nguyen
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“Comically macabre . . . Nguyen [is] a stellar satirist who takes bold imaginative risks.”
“A disturbing page-turner and a powerful look at American racism.”
“Risk and desperation give the book the fresh edge of a thriller while maintaining its larger focus as an entwined story of a family and imperialist history . . . [A] rich, gripping novel that lands squarely as a mirror of our contemporary moral squalor.”
“A knowing and thought-provoking exploration of love, modern isolation, and what it means to exist—especially as a person of color—in our increasingly digital age.”
“[New Waves] cleverly conjures a modern Gatsby-and-Nick-Carraway dynamic between the narrator, Lucas, and his co-worker Margo. . . . [Kevin Nguyen] captures beautifully the subtle strains of being disenfranchised, poor and lonely in New York.”
“Nguyen’s stellar debut is a piercing assessment of young adulthood, the tech industry, and racism. . . . Nguyen impressively holds together his overlapping plot threads while providing incisive criticism of privilege and a dose of sharp humor. The story is fast-paced and fascinating, but also deeply felt; the effect is a page-turner with some serious bite.”
Kevin Nguyen’s most recent novel, Mỹ Documents (One World, 2025), is a New York Times Editor's Choice and a best book of the year so far according to Time and Esquire. His first novel, New Waves (One World, 2020), was called “both knowing and cutting, a satire of internet culture that is also a moving portrait of a lost human being” by the Los Angeles Times, and was a best book of the year according to NPR, The New York Public Library, Parade, and Kirkus.
Nguyen is also a features editor at The Verge, where he has published stories that have been finalists for the National Magazine Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Previously, he was a senior editor at GQ.
In a recent interview, Nguyen was asked how he achieved tonal balance between darkness and humor in Mỹ Documents. He responded, “That balance was something I wanted to nail pretty early on because that tension between the book’s heavy themes and its sense of humor was as important to me as the central tensions between the characters. The driving idea behind Mỹ Documents is that even in bleak circumstances, people still find ways to adapt, to laugh.”
He is currently at work on a biography of musician/composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. He lives in Brooklyn.
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Mỹ Documents
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New Waves
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