Bui Quang Vien

Bui Quang Vien (Bui Chat) was born in Ho Nai, Bien Hoa, Dong Nai Province. He graduated in 2001 from the Faculty of Literature, Linguistics, and Journalism of Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City- University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Profile photo: Exhibition poster, Bui Quang Vien via RFA

Bui Chat and fellow poet Ly Doi (Lý Đợi) started the literary group Mo Mieng (Open Your Mouth). In 2002, Chat founded publishing house Giay Vun (Scrap Paper) as an independent platform for writers to publish their work without being subjected to state-run control and censorship. 

Giay Vun is an independent publisher with about 30 books, as of 2011, mostly poetry in the post-modernist tradition by Mo Mieng members. Its most influential product to date is perhaps the Vietnamese translation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” by Pham Minh Ngoc in 2010. 

In 2004, Bui Chat and Ly Doi were jailed for two days for passing out flyers at the site of a poetry reading canceled by the police. In 2005, the Ministry of Culture canceled a performance planned at the Goethe Institute in Hà Nội.

In 2011, Chat was given the Prix Voltaire – Freedom to Publish Prize, by the International Publishers Association. Bui Chat traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in April 2011 to accept the award. Upon returning to Vietnam, he was interrogated by the authorities and had his passport confiscated (still confiscated as of late 2022).

He is married with one child.