Andrew Lam fled Vietnam at the age of 11 in 1975, seeking refuge in the Bay Area of California, and now he stopped by Suffolk to share his perspective through his literature.
Lam was fluent in Vietnamese and French, but not English, and though he was from a privileged class back in Vietnam he and his family had only traveled with backpacks and determination.
Without a choice but to integrate Lam landed himself into a prestigious high school in San Francisco and an acceptance at the University of California, Berkeley, where his parents hoped he would earn a degree and the first step towards becoming a doctor. But at the end of his undergraduate career, circumstances had changed.
“When I was at Berkeley studying biochemistry, I fell in love,” said Lam. “The love was the love of my life at that point, and when I graduated that story ended because as you graduate from school people moved away, and I, instead of going to medical school, I took creative writing classes at UC Extension to write about my broken heart.”
Professors became impressed by his work and classmates wept over his essays as Lam reopened an old wound he never knew he had been neglecting.
“It slowly dawned on me that I had lived with a broken heart without knowing at the age of 11 when we left Vietnam, when we lost our family, dogs, house, relatives, friends, other people we loved and we left behind. That kid, his heart had completely shattered and he didn’t know it. He was frozen in time, and so this heartbreak, that romantic heartbreak, allowed me to begin to address the epic loss of a country.”
In coping with these emotions, Lam kept writing and writing.
One of his professors in his extension program sent his work to the San Francisco State creative writing program where he was offered a spot if he filled out an application.
“I remember gasping and saying, ‘My mom is going to kill me,’ and I filled out the application, and I got in and left the whole idea of being a doctor,” said Lam.
For roughly the next four decades Lam made his name in the world of journalism and literature, working for NPR and contributing to media outlets like the LA Times, New America Media, The Nation and more, as well as writing and publishing four books.
Starting a career first in journalism, Lam was sent around the globe writing about countries, cultures and their history from all over.
“I became a journalist, and then within a few years I won awards for writing from refugee camps,” said Lam. “I went back to Vietnam to write about the end of the Cold War, I went to Cambodia, I interviewed ex Khmer Rouge soldiers, and to Thailand and Burma.”
But in the early 2000s Lam looked back on an old dream of becoming a novelist.
His first book, “Perfume Dreams: Reflection on the Vietnamese Diaspora,” was published in 2005, and started what would lead to long book tours and decades more of writing. In 2026 Lam is working on his fifth book, one he has in the back of his mind for over 10 years.
One of other books, “East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres,” focuses on the bridging of cultures across the globe and a perspective of an immigrant nation, while “Birds of Paradise Lost: Stories” and “Stories from the Edge of the Sea” are collections of short stories painting the lives and experiences of Vietnamese Americans in California.
“In the latest book I explored something more personal too, like sexuality, love, loss, heartbreaks and the things that matter on a more personal scale,” said Lam.
While on his book tour for “Stories from the Edge of the Sea,” published in 2025, Lam visited Suffolk University for the second time. Lam came to Suffolk after his third book was published in 2012, but History, Language and Global Culture Professor Ronald Suleski invited Lam, a friend of his, back March 26 to talk with his classes as well as present in the Sawyer Library Poetry Center.
In Suleski’s classes he talked about cultural diasporas and his own experience as a Vietnamese refugee in the U.S. Other students shared their stories and connections they had felt while Lam told his own.
In the Poetry Center, The Rosenberg Institute for East Asian Studies at Suffolk University, as well as the Office of Diversity, Access and Inclusion, Ford Hall Forum and the Vietnamese Student Association sponsored Lam’s talk on his latest work.
Students were able to hear Lam’s personal story as well as excerpts from his book.
“They call me the OG because I was the first guy to publish in English and get out there,” said Lam. “But the OG is always old, right? But when I first started, it had to do with the fact that I come from a community whose history is really misrepresented or misunderstood, or invisible altogether.”
Lam not only was one of the first Vietnamese journalists and authors to take off while writing in English, but also call out and educate on cultural diaspora’s from a first person perspective.
In the crowd of the Poetry Center were an array of Suffolk students, including members of the VSA like senior psychology major and vice president of the VSA, Eileen Kelly.
“He definitely brought some personal insight that was really valuable. Sharing his experiences, fleeing at such a young age and navigating his identity, being American and also Vietnamese was really interesting,” said Kelly. “And hearing about his career as a reporter, I think objectively, there needs to be more journalism on marginalized communities, especially Vietnamese people.”
Whether he is writing about his own stories or others, Lam’s perspective and transparency weaved into his literature has offered a home to not just Vietnamese immigrants and refugees, but to the heartbroken as well.
“Only when it’s written in story and with heart and truth, that it has a way to connect from the past and present, to the future,” said Lam.
