Ocean Vuong: Indian students are struggling with visas but the most exciting literature will come from them

Ocean Vuong was just two when his family fled post-war Vietnam and came to the US. He only learned to read and write English at age 11—the first in his working-class family to do so. Now 36, Vuong has not only won the MacArthur ‘genius’ grant and the TS Eliot and Forward prizes, he is a literary superstar whose words are printed on tees, studied in classrooms and recited at vigils. The Vietnamese-American author speaks with Sneha Bhura about his new novel, and the importance of being earnest.