89 minutes with … Ocean Vuong

The balladeer for the sensitive queer has a metaphor for everything and a new book of poems.

Ijust have that octave that doesn’t cut through anything,” says Ocean Vuong when I find him sitting perfectly upright in a booth at the back of the woodpaneled lobby of the Marlton Hotel near Washington Square. The poet, novelist, and certified MacArthur “genius” tends to shy away from anywhere too boisterous, and not only because he’s so softspoken. He’d suggested we meet up here to discuss his exquisite new book of poetry (everything about Vuong is a bit exquisite), Time Is a Mother, a lyrical follow-up to his widely acclaimed 2019 best-selling novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, in part because the writer Alexander Chee had told him it would be quiet. But I can barely hear him over the rattling of cocktail shakers.