The Color of Peace
The Color of Peace
by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Paperback / 120p. / Poetry
ISBN 978-1965154-11-3
The debut poetry collection in English by the best-selling author of The Mountains Sing and Dust Child.
From award-winning author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai comes a powerful collection of poems that bridge divides between nations, generations, and wars. The Color of Peace weaves together deeply personal narratives of family, war, and reconciliation, offering a profound meditation on healing and hope across cultures and time.
Born into the Red Delta of Northern Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai grew up in the Mekong Delta, Southern Việt Nam. She is an award-winning writer in both Vietnamese and English and the author of thirteen books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Her books include The Secret of Hoa Sen, The Mountains Sing, and Dust Child.
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is donating 100% of the proceeds from this book to three organizations that support victims of the Việt Nam War: PeaceTrees Vietnam, the D.O.VE fund, and RENEW. By purchasing a copy of this book, you will contribute to the efforts of these organizations to remove unexploded bombs, support the victims of Agent Orange, build schools, and provide medical facilities and scholarships. Thank you!
“Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s The Color of Peace communes with place, the ghosts of wars, and shared inheritances. Featuring family, memory, and connections across time and space, the poems are sensitive and unflinching as they celebrate or mourn, find joy and wisdom, and offer hope for humanity”
“These poems represent vivid illustrations of intimate connections to place so that a clear and powerfully engaging image of Việt Nam emerges before us. Dr. Nguyễn accomplishes this by artfully marrying her personal history with the history of her ancient, war-torn country, to create a seamless tableau, within which we are all complicit. I relish these poems. I can’t think of a more fitting collection to be published as the United States prepares to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the American War in Vietnam.”
“At once tender and resolute, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai traverses the casualties of war while instilling an unwavering belief in the value of all life.”
“Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s poems wound our hearts, as they must, with the damage of war, while at the same time they buoy us, as they must as well, with the hope for peace that shimmers within her exquisite language and imagery. Her words take us to the heart of family and the joy of love and the beauty of the land, and they carry us through the pain of loss and to the strength of those who survive by keeping or rediscovering their humanity.”
“Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai doesn’t simply sit down to write poetry, she experiences the world poetically. Her stories, feelings, and beliefs are gathered and shared via rich images, metaphors, and language. . . . These poems are a tender balm for wounds and call to live more generously, poetically.”
