Nam Le: poetry is truth

After a 16 year hiatus, Vietnamese-Australian writer Nam Le returned to the literary scene with his award-winning poetry collection '36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem'. An unapologetic interrogation of what it means to be a part of a diaspora, Le took the much-coveted Book of the Year prize at last year's New South Wales Literary Awards Le's parents left Vietnam by boat as refugees when he was one year old, eventually settling in Melbourne - an experience he grappled with in the title story of his previous short story collection, 'The Boat'. He spoke to Kate about his upcoming trip to NZ to perform poetry as a part of WORD Christcurch early next month.