Viet Thanh Nguyen
Nguyen was born in Ban Mê Thuột, Viet Nam (now spelled Buôn Mê Thuột). He came to the United States as a refugee in 1975 with his family. At first, they settled in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. That was one of four places in the U. S. for Vietnamese refugees to live. After that, they moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His family lived there until 1978 when they moved to San Jose, California.