It has been a long time since my last post, but things have been a bit hectic around here. I’m happy to report, however, that all this hustle and bustle has proved worthwhile in the end, and I’m now back with some exciting news to share.

As you may remember, in recent years I have published essays about my (mis)adventures during my early years in America. This all started back in 2021, right before the pandemic began to loosen its deadly grips. Cooped up indoors like all of you, I willed myself to undertake a long overdue house-cleaning. In the process, which unfortunately never quite finished, a few boxes of old correspondence and photos were unearthed, a lot of which dated back to the seventies and eighties. And like that, a door to the past was flung open.

Swept under the spell of recovered memories, I sat down and started writing—first one short essay, then another, then a third one, and a fourth. . . . It finally struck me: Why not collect those essays together in chronological order then add more material to create one longer, continuous narrative? A personal recording of those tumultuous years, when monumental change occurred that affected not only me but also my family and so many of our compatriots. Unlike my earlier writings about that same time period (a novel and a collection of short stories), this new book would be based entirely on real-life experiences of my family and myself.

I spent the next thirty months working on that, redocumenting the long-buried years to the best of my recollection, aided by faded letters and old photographs and by discussions with my siblings who helped me remember. A first draft was completed in early 2024, followed by multiple rounds of edits before it was deemed ready to send out to potential publishers. Aside from the expected drawerful of declines, I was thrilled to receive positive follow-ups from several of the publishers. In the end I accepted the offer from the University of Tennessee Press (UTP) to publish my book in its acclaimed series “Legacies of War.”

It was a long process from the tentative offer to the evaluation by outside experts and the final approval by the UTP publishing committee. By the time a contract was drawn up and agreed upon for my new book, the publishing window for 2025 had closed, much to my disappointment. I had hoped that the book would come out in time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War (Apr 30, 1975). As it stands, the estimated publication date after final edits, cover and interior designs, and typesetting is Jun 9, 2026—just in time for the celebration of America’s 250th Birthday.

So, it’s still a few months yet until the book becomes a real thing that you can hold in your hand to read, but you can get a flavor of it already because UTP has recently had the Amazon book page up and running. The book title is Land of Dreams: An Immigrant’s Journey from War-Torn Vietnam to America.

Click HERE to open the Amazon book page and check out the beautiful cover and the wonderful advance reviews, for which I’m most humbled and grateful. Please help spread the word far and wide and make Jun 9, 2026 the best book launch ever! I will of course keep you posted on any new milestones and updates.