Vietnamese American writer Ocean Vuong’s debut poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, won multiple awards, and his debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, hit The New York Times bestseller list. His work is semi-autobiographical, exploring and illuminating a lesser-known America through a queer, immigrant perspective. In 2019, he was awarded a “genius” grant of $625,000 by the MacArthur Foundation. He says that means lots of things, including more pizza for his MFA students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

You’re based in Northampton, Massachusetts. What’s it like?
We have four bookstores in a two-block radius. I’ve never lived anywhere that has that, even New York, where I lived for 11 years. I don’t miss any intellectual rigor here. There’s...