Oh, Ocean Vuong. This year I've read this 2016 poetry book, his 2022 collection of poems Time Is a Mother, and his heralded 2019 memoir On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. Herein, one reads how Vuong was working out the poetic prose that would become his memoir, as many of the themes and topics are the same. What's more, there's actually a poem titled On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.

Vuong's book titles, and likely his very thoughts, are so elegant. As one of his college professors put it in a New Yorker profile this year, sometimes one has in class a student who's not really testing to become a writer but rather already is one. I rarely re-read anything, and I'll be revisiting Vuong's books a few times a decade for the rest of my life. I'm just glad to feel present with such a gifted writer via his words on the printed page. If you haven't read about his life story, shared over the course of all three books mentioned, please do yourself a favor. Then find that NYer feature, and also his 7-minute interview on Seth Meyers' late-nite TV show. Thou shalt not be sorry.