Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Ocean Vuong's first full-length book of poems, was released in 2016 to tremendous acclaim. The book won the T.S. Eliot Award and the Whiting Award, among many other prizes, and was a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2016. The book focuses on the relationships in a fragmented, loving family; questions of immigration, trauma, and violence; and the relationships between sexuality, secrecy, trauma, and joy. Night Sky with Exit Wounds has been translated into eight languages, and one of its poems gave its title to Vuong's first novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, in 2019.
Key Aspects of Night Sky with Exit Wounds
Tone
The poems are generally intense and...