First Draft: A Literary Social with Joshua Nguyen

A guided writing prompt with a twist.
Because writing is thirsty work.

Have a drink. Write a story. Have another drink. Write a better story.

Miami Book Fair presents First Draft, a series of informal writing events that turn happy hours into great stories.

You’re inspired. But you’re also thirsty. Bring your own drink and log in for a First Draft event and a guided writing prompt. Share your writing. You never know what you might knock out as you knock one back!

Instructor: Joshua Nguyen
Theme: The Lục Bát Poem

The lục bát is a traditional Vietnamese form that follows a strict rhyme scheme and was used to write about long journeys or tales of warriorhood. In this generative workshop, participants will incorporate either the structure, or the themes, of the lục bát. Not only will there be a quick lesson on the history of the form, participants will be led through various prompts that focus on momentum, history, and the bridge that connects our past to our present.

This event is part of Miami Book Fair’s 2022 Big Read program.

Joshua Nguyen is the author of Come Clean (University of Wisconsin Press), winner of the 2021 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry and the chapbook, “American Lục Bát for My Mother” (Bull City Press, 2021). He is a Vietnamese-American writer, a collegiate national poetry slam champion (CUPSI), and a native Houstonian. He has received fellowships from Kundiman, Tin House, Sundress Academy For The Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. He has been published in Wildness,The Texas Review, Auburn Avenue, and elsewhere. He has also been featured on both the “VS” podcast and “The Slowdown”. He is the Wit Tea co-editor for The Offing Mag, the Kundiman South co-chair, a bubble tea connoisseur, and loves a good pun. He is a PhD student at The University of Mississippi, where he also received his MFA.