Meet the Judges: Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Meet the judges! Quế Mai is the kind-hearted and brilliant author of Dust Child and The Mountains Sing, winner of our 2021 Prize. She is doing amazing work to centre Vietnamese stories and lives through her moving storytelling.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT THE ONLINE READING COMMUNITY?
The online reading community is AMAZING! I love being part of it, since I get very good book suggestions and I see how readers respond to the books that I have read.
WHAT BOOK FIRST SPARKED YOUR LOVE FOR READING?
Dế mèn phiêu lưu ký, a Vietnamese novel about the mischievous adventures of a cricket. The importance of this book for my imagination is highlighted in my debut novel, The Mountains Sing.
WHAT DEBUT AUTHOR SHOULD WE BE KEEPING OUR EYES ON?
There are too many good authors for me to select one. I always love discovering debut authors and following their journeys, to see what they do next. My most recent exciting discovery is the author Thao Thai who wrote the heart-breaking, poetic, and suspenseful novel, Banyan Moon.
WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL INSPIRED TO WRITE?
My love for reading and my hope for a better future where humans love humans more.
IF YOU COULD GO FOR DINNER WITH A CHARACTER, WHO WOULD YOU PICK AND WHY?
The Fig Tree, a narrator in the novel The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. This tree grew in The Happy Fig on Cyprus and later, from a cutting in England. The Fig Tree is a witness of history who is wise, mysterious and fascinating. She is a symbol of survival and I dream of having dinner with her, as well as with the wise, talented, and caring author Elif Shafak.
DO YOU HAVE ANY READING RITUALS?
I read every day, in both Vietnamese and English, both for fun and for my research. If I am not travelling for book events or for my research, I write in the morning and read in the afternoon or evening.
ALL TIME FAVE READ
I have too many to name just one.
CURRENT READ
Black Butterflies, a debut novel that captures life inside the Siege of Sarajevo. This book is a short-listed title for the Nota Bene Prize.
NEXT ON TBR
When I Sing, Mountains Dance, the second novel by Catalan writer and artist Irene Solà, also a short-listed title for the Nota Bene Prize.