Enduring Spirit of Vietnam

About the Special Event

Vietnam Society, in partnership with Peace Trees Vietnam, Friends of Little Saigon and the Seattle Public Libary, is pleased to present a special event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War: a conversation between award-winning Vietnamese author, Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and celebrated artist photographer Peter Steinhauer. Over the past decades, Peter and Quế Mai have used their arts to foster peace, empathy, healing and build a pathway to reconciliation between Việt Nam and the United States.

The two artists will engage in discussions regarding inheriting the past and fostering hope for the future. Their talks will highlight how the arts have played a powerful role in the healing and reconciliation since the ending of the Vietnam War and its powerful role in building bridges for future generations. To honor more than 3 million people from Vietnam, the U.S. and several other countries who lost their lives in the war, Quế Mai will perform her poetry in Vietnamese and English. Peter will speak about his latest book, Nhà Thờ - Cathedrals, which features some of Vietnam’s oldest cathedrals – built during the French colonial period blending French styles with Vietnamese design sensibilities. He will also share his perspectives and photographs of Vietnam from the past 30 years, which capture the hearts and soul of Vietnamese people, their resilience, survival and creativity. Quế Mai will share first-hand, compelling stories about war-related issues and the need to address them to bring healing to the millions of people who are still affected by them today: Agent Orange, Unexploded Ordinances, missing family members, and mixed race Amerasian children born into the war. These issues have been fictionalized into her internationally best-selling novels The Mountains Sing and Dust Child. The two artists will answer questions from the audience, help us commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in the most meaningful ways, and suggest the work which we can all do together to contribute to global peace.

About the Speakers

Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, born into the Vietnam War, grew up witnessing the war’s devastation. She is compelled to document the impact of the war to call for peace and for humans to love humans more. She is the author of twelve books of fiction, poetry and non-fiction in Vietnamese and English. She has received top literary prizes for her writing in Vietnamese, including Poetry of the Year 2010 Award from the Hanoi Writers Association. Her two novels in English, The Mountains Sing and Dust Child, are both international bestsellers and have been honored with Runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, the International Book Awards, the BookBrowse Best Debut Award, and the Lannan Literary Fellowship in Fiction for "a work of exceptional quality" and "contribution to peace and reconciliation”. Her writing has been translated into more than twenty-five languages and has appeared in major publications including The New York Times. Quế Mai has worked extensively with war veterans and translated the work of award-winning American veteran writers such as Yusef Komunyakaa, Larry Heinemann, Bruce Weigl, and Wayne Karlin. She was named by Forbes Vietnam as one of 20 inspiring women of 2021.

Peter Steinhauer is an artist photographer and author of four books, who lived and worked in Vietnam for 30 years beginning in 1993. He is the torch bearer for his father’s work as a military doctor who continued his mission of healing people after the war by co-founding a non-profit health organization to support Vietnamese hospitals and doctors. In continuing his father’s legacy of healing, Peter’s mission is to portray Vietnam’s natural beauty, culture and people, and not just a place of war, His first artist monograph, Vietnam: Portraits and Landscapes, was published by Edition Stemmle of Zurich in 2002. Enduring Spirit of Vietnam, his second artist monograph was awarded Best Photography Book of the Year 2007 by Photo District News (PDN). Cocoons, his third monograph was published by Powerhouse Books in January 2019. His latest book, Nhà Thờ - Cathedrals, is forthcoming in April 2025.. His prints are in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and a growing number of private and corporate collections worldwide. He is a recipient of numerous international photography awards including a finalist for the 2014 and 2017 Lucie Awards, a Ford Foundation grant for his work in Vietnam, and three Communication Arts Photography Annual Award of Excellence prizes, among others.

About the Organizations

Vietnam Society, based in Washington, D.C., is an independent non-profit organization established with a mission to foster the understanding of Vietnam’s past and present through the richness of its art and culture. We believe art and culture is a uniting medium which transcends political lines and helps people to connect and appreciate each other’s uniqueness. Yet there is a large knowledge gap in the U.S. and around the world about Vietnamese art and culture. Filling this gap will play a part in helping the American public and Vietnamese diaspora move on from the painful past of the Vietnam War. We believe in the transcendent power of art to foster healthy discussions about Vietnamese heritage that ultimately unites and bonds people around common understandings. These avenues allow for the expression of individual and collective interpretation of the country’s history and society, providing knowledge and inspiration for this generation and those to come.

Friends of Little Saigon's mission is to preserve and enhance Little Saigon’s cultural, economic, and historic vitality. Little Sài Gòn is the social, economic, and cultural hub of the Vietnamese community in the Puget Sound region.

Peace Trees Vietnam's mission is to address the legacy of war by removing dangerous explosives, returning land to safe use, promoting peace and cultivating a brighter future for the children and families of Vietnam.

Host or Publisher Elliott Bay Book Company