The Most Famous
WRITERS from Vietnam
This page contains a list of the greatest Vietnamese Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 5,755 Writers, 8 of which were born in Vietnam. This makes Vietnam the birth place of the 72nd most number of Writers behind Colombia and North Macedonia.
Top 8
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Vietnamese Writers of all time. This list of famous Vietnamese Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Marguerite Duras (1914 - 1996)
With an HPI of 69.97, Marguerite Duras is the most famous Vietnamese Writer. Her biography has been translated into 56 different languages on wikipedia.
Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (French pronunciation: [maʁɡ(ə)ʁit ʒɛʁmɛn maʁi dɔnadjø], 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (French: [maʁɡ(ə)ʁit dyʁas]), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film Hiroshima mon amour (1959) earned her a nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.
2. Nguyễn Du (1765 - 1820)
With an HPI of 54.73, Nguyễn Du is the 2nd most famous Vietnamese Writer. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.
Nguyễn Du (阮攸; 3 January 1766 – 16 September 1820), courtesy name Tố Như (素如) and art name Thanh Hiên (清軒), is a celebrated Vietnamese poet and musician. He is most known for writing the epic poem The Tale of Kiều.
3. Phan Bội Châu (1867 - 1940)
With an HPI of 54.17, Phan Bội Châu is the 3rd most famous Vietnamese Writer. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Phan Bội Châu (Vietnamese: [faːn ɓôjˀ cəw]; 26 December 1867 – 29 October 1940), born Phan Văn San, courtesy name Hải Thụ (later changed to Sào Nam), was a pioneer of Vietnamese 20th century nationalism. In 1904, he formed a revolutionary organization called Duy Tân Hội ("Modernization Association"). From 1905 to 1908, he lived in Japan where he wrote political tracts calling for the independence of Vietnam from French colonial rule. After being forced to leave Japan, he moved to China where he was influenced by Sun Yat-sen. He formed a new group called Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội (“Vietnamese Restoration League”), modeled after Sun Yat-sen's republican party. In 1925, French agents seized him in Shanghai. He was convicted of treason and spent the rest of his life under house arrest in Huế.
4. Phan Thi Kim Phuc (1963 - )
With an HPI of 52.07, Phan Thi Kim Phuc is the 4th most famous Vietnamese Writer. Her biography has been translated into 32 different languages.
Phan Thị Kim Phúc (Vietnamese pronunciation: [faːŋ tʰɪ̂ˀ kim fúk͡p̚]; born April 6, 1963), referred to informally as the girl in the picture and the napalm girl, is a South Vietnamese-born Canadian woman best known as the nine-year-old child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph, titled "The Terror of War", taken at Trảng Bàng during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972. The image, taken for the Associated Press by a 21-year-old Vietnamese-American photographer named Nick Ut, shows her at nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack. She later founded the Kim Foundation International to provide aid to child victims of war.
5. Hồ Xuân Hương (1772 - 1822)
With an HPI of 51.93, Hồ Xuân Hương is the 5th most famous Vietnamese Writer. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Hồ Xuân Hương (胡春香; 1772–1822) was a Vietnamese poet born at the end of the Lê dynasty. She grew up in an era of political and social turmoil – the time of the Tây Sơn rebellion and a three-decade civil war that led to Nguyễn Ánh seizing power as Emperor Gia Long and starting the Nguyễn dynasty. She wrote poetry using chữ Nôm (Southern Script), which adapts Chinese characters for writing demotic Vietnamese. She is considered to be one of Vietnam's greatest classical poets. Xuân Diệu, a prominent modern poet, dubbed her "The Queen of Nôm poetry".
6. Dương Thu Hương (1947 - )
With an HPI of 46.23, Dương Thu Hương is the 6th most famous Vietnamese Writer. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Dương Thu Hương (born 1947) is a Vietnamese author and political dissident.
7. Kim Thúy (1968 - )
With an HPI of 39.19, Kim Thúy is the 7th most famous Vietnamese Writer. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Kim Thúy Ly Thanh, CQ (born 1968 in Saigon, South Vietnam) is a Vietnamese-born Canadian writer, whose debut novel Ru won the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the 2010 Governor General's Awards.
8. Viet Thanh Nguyen (1971 - )
With an HPI of 32.32, Viet Thanh Nguyen is the 8th most famous Vietnamese Writer. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Viet Thanh Nguyen (Vietnamese: Nguyễn Thanh Việt; born March 13, 1971) is a Vietnamese-American professor and novelist. He is the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Nguyen's debut novel, The Sympathizer, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and many other accolades. He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, in 2017. Nguyen is a regular contributor, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, covering immigration, refugees, politics, culture, and Southeast Asia. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2020 was elected as the first Asian-American member of the Pulitzer Prize Board in its 103-year-history.
Pantheon has 8 people classified as writers born between 1765 and 1971. Of these 8, 4 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living writers include Phan Thi Kim Phuc, Dương Thu Hương, and Kim Thúy. The most famous deceased writers include Marguerite Duras, Nguyễn Du, and Phan Bội Châu.
Living Writers
Go to all Rankings
Phan Thi Kim Phuc
1963 - Present
HPI: 52.07
Dương Thu Hương
1947 - Present
HPI: 46.23
Kim Thúy
1968 - Present
HPI: 39.19
Viet Thanh Nguyen
1971 - Present
HPI: 32.32
Deceased Writers
Go to all RankingsMarguerite Duras
1914 - 1996
HPI: 69.97
Nguyễn Du
1765 - 1820
HPI: 54.73
Phan Bội Châu
1867 - 1940
HPI: 54.17
Hồ Xuân Hương
1772 - 1822
HPI: 51.93
Which Writers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 4 most globally memorable Writers since 1700.
