Journey to Come Clean w/ Joshua Nguyen

(S5, EP 12) Joshua Nguyen (He / Him) joined me as the final guest of Season 5's theme, "Our Becoming: An LGBTQ Asian Experience".  He is fresh off from his mini chapbook debut release, "An American Lục Bát For My Mother" this past Spring, and is now set to release his full length poetry debut book, "Come Clean" this October which explores issues of sexual trauma, personal identity among others.  I talk to Joshua about his poetry, and his anticipation of releasing his debut poetry collection.  We talked about his own recent journey exploring his sexual identity and what that means. Meanwhile, I spent some time poking fun at the Houston Rockets (mostly ex-Rocket James Harden), a team that he lives and bleeds for.  Hope you enjoy the season 5 finale!  Visit Joshua on IG and Twitter @JoshuaNguyen03 and don't forget to pre-order your copy of "Come Clean" 

Bio:

Joshua Nguyen is a queer Vietnamese-American writer, a collegiate national poetry slam champion (CUPSI), and a native Houstonian. He is the author of the chapbook, "American Lục Bát for My Mother" (Bull City Press, 2021) and has received fellowships from Kundiman, Tin House, Sundress Academy For The Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. He has been published in The Offing, Wildness, American Poetry Review, The Texas Review, Auburn Avenue, Crab Orchard Review, and Gulf Coast Mag. He has also been featured on both the "VS" podcast and Tracy K. Smith's, "The Slowdown". He is a bubble tea connoisseur and works in a kitchen. His debut poetry collection, "Come Clean" (Oct 5th 2021, University of Wisconsin Press), Come Clean was the winner of the 2021 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry. Joshua is a PhD student at The University of Mississippi, where he also received his MFA.