Andrew X. Pham was a Vietnamese-born American author and the founder of Spoonwiz. Pham was also an independent writer, journalist, and engineer. He received his B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1990, and worked as an aircraft engineer before becoming a freelance technical writer and journalist. From 1994 to 2000, he was a book reviewer, food writer, and restaurant critic for Metro Newspapers in Silicon Valley, California.

Extended biography

Born in

Phan Thiet Phan may refer to: * Phan (surname), a Vietnamese family name * Phan District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand * Phan River, Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam * Phan (tray) Phan (, ) is an artistically decorated tray with pedestal. It is common in T ...

in 1967, Pham's was the son of, Thong, a teacher, and his mother a laundress. Pham had two sisters, Chi and Kay, and three younger brothers, Huy, Tien, and Hien. During the Vietnam War, Thong worked for the

South Vietnamese Army The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; ) composed the ground forces of the South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Its predecessor was the ground forces of the Vietnamese National Army ...

in its propaganda department. He was eventually captured by the

Vietcong The Viet Cong (VC) was an epithet and umbrella term to refer to the Communism, communist-driven armed movement and united front organization in South Vietnam. It was formally organized as and led by the National Liberation Front of South Vi ...

and sent to Minh Luong Prison re-education camp for several months. After Thong's release, the family decided to flee by boat to

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. As the boat was falling apart at sea they were rescued by an Indonesian freighter, which brought them to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. Pham's family spent 18 months in a refugee camp in Jakarta. The First Baptist Church of

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

flew the Pham family to Louisiana and sponsored them there. Nine months later, the Pham family relocated to

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

. After finishing high school, Pham attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

to study engineering. During this period Chi, who had left home years earlier, returned as a

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

male with the name Minh. After several months, Minh committed suicide. His tragic death was the catalyst for Pham's journey to Vietnam and self-discovery. After Minh's death, Pham decided to take a trip to the Pacific Northwest and then to Vietnam. He chronicled this journey in his book, ''Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam''. Pham died on April 30th, 2025. His ashes were scattered at sea in Thailand.

Works

* (1999) * (2008) * (2024)

Awards

*1999 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for ''Catfish and Mandala'' (memoir) *2000

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, ...

*2009

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

References

External links

* https://www.andrewxpham.com/, official website.
Andrew X Pham
author's Facebook fan page.
Profile at The Whiting Foundation

Excerpt from The Eaves of Heaven at BookBrowse
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pham, Andrew X. Vietnamese emigrants to the United States Living people 1967 births American writers of Vietnamese descent