Ocean Vuong (born Vương Quốc Vinh) is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. He was born on October 14, 1988, in Saigon, Vietnam and later raised in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. Vuong is a recipient of numerous accolades including the 2014 Ruth Lilly/Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, the 2016 Whiting Award, and the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize.

His critically acclaimed works include the poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time is a Mother, and the novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, which debuted on the The New York Times bestseller list and has sold over a million copies worldwide in 40 languages.

Vuong has worked in various roles, including as a line cook, tobacco harvester, and fast-food server, gaining inspiration for his work The Emperor of Gladness. Selected by Foreign Policy magazine as one of its 100 Leading Global Thinkers, his writings have appeared in prestigious publications such as The Atlantic, Granta, Harpers, The Nation, and The New Yorker.

Vuong holds a BA in Nineteenth Century American Literature from Brooklyn College and an MFA in Poetry from New York University (NYU), where he currently teaches as a Professor in Modern Poetry and Poetics. He divides his time between Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York City.