tvc.dsj.org | November 7, 2017
CATHOLIC
SCHOOLS
19
Pulitzer Prize Winner Addresses Bellarmine Students at his Alma Mater
When Viet Thanh Nguyen was a
student at Bellarmine College Prepara-
tory, from which he graduated in 1988,
he found it challenging to fit in at a
school whose student population at the
time did not reflect much diversity. “I’m
delighted that Bellarmine has trans-
formed,” Nguyen told more than 1,600
students, as well as faculty and staff,
gathered for a justice summit assembly
at the school the morning of Oct. 18.
Nguyen, who came to the United
States from Vietnam with his family
as a refugee during the summer of
1975, attended Saint Patrick’s School
and then Bellarmine. The Aerol Ar-
nold Chair of English and professor
of English and American Studies and
Ethnicity at USC has authored four
books. His novel, “The Sympathizer,”
won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
His work, “Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam
and the Memory of War,” was a finalist
in nonfiction for both the National Book
Critics Circle Award and the National
Book Award. He was recently named
a 2017 MacArthur Fellow, commonly
referred to as a “g