Vaan Nguyen

Nguyen is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, who were part of a group called the Vietnamese boat people. They escaped Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War, in 1977, after her grandfather was killed by the communist authorities. The boat was wrecked on the Philippines shore, but they were denied entry, and were interned in a refugee camp.

In 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin granted 180 Vietnamese refugees Israeli citizenship, Nguyen's parents among them. They were settled in the desert town of Sderot, but moved from place to place for several years. Nguyen was born during this time, in the southern city of Ashkelon. The family eventually settled in Jaffa, where Nguyen and her four sisters grew up.

Her childhood was difficult; she faced racist bullying and violence. As a result, she tried to distance herself from her Vietnamese ancestry, going so far as to write to members of parliament to ask to have her "Ethnicity: Vietnamese" erased from her identity card. She would hide in the library, where she read many different authors and genres, citing this early exposure as a major influence on her creativity. Since her first collections was published, Nguyen is considered at the forefront of a new generation of poets, lauded and supported by some of Israel's leading cultural and literary influencers. In her work, she deals extensively with personal issues, such as sexuality, and her marginalization in Israeli society.