Nhã Ca


Nhã Ca is a Vietnamese-American poet and novelist.
Trần Thị Thu Vân grew up in Huế and studied at Đồng Khánh College there. She moved to Saigon in 1960 and married the poet Trần Dạ Từ, with whom she had seven children.
She wrote over the years, a little over twenty books, mainly novels, and was the founder of the publishing house Thurong Yeu. She took the pseudonym, Nhã Ca, which means "little anthem", from the Song of Solomon in the Bible.
In 1975, after Vietnam's reunification, she was identified her as one of ten authors, and the only female, who were blacklisted as a "cultural guerrilla" and she was a political prisoner in jail for two years from 1976. Her husband was also imprisoned for the same charge and sat in prison twelve years, 1977-89. After the husband's release, the eldest son, was able travel to Sweden, where he persuaded the Swedish Pen Club to take up the case with the Swedish government, after which the family received political asylum in Sweden and exit permits. Nha Ca, her husband, and several of their children later moved on to the United States and settled in California in 1992.
In the US, the couple worked with the newspaper Việt Báo. Nha Ca's subsequent literary output has been limited, though in 2006, she published a novel in four thick volumes, Đường Tự Do.

''Mourning headband for Hué''

Nha Ca arrived in Huế before the Tết weekend in January, 1968 to attend the Buddhist funeral of her father. She became stranded in town because of the Tet Offensive by the forces of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. She described the horrors she experienced during the Battle of Huế in the documentary book Giai Khăn Sô cho Huế, published in Vietnamese in 1969. Only a few of her books have been translated into English or French. This book was translated into English under the title Mourning headband Hue. In Vietnam, it was banned in 1975.

Selected works

  1. Nhã Ca mới
  2. Đêm nghe tiếng đại bác
  3. Đêm dậy thì
  4. Bóng tối thời con gái
  5. Khi bước xưống
  6. Người tình ngoài mặt trận
  7. Sống một ngày
  8. Xuân thì
  9. Những giọt nắng vàng
  10. Đoàn nữ binh mùa thu
  11. Giải khăn sô cho Huế
  12. Một mai khi hòa bình
  13. Mưa trên cây sầu đông
  14. Phượng hoàng
  15. Tình ca cho Huế đổ nát
  16. Dạ khúc bên kia phố
  17. Tình ca trong lửa đỏ
  18. Đời ca hát
  19. Lặn về phía mặt trời
  20. Trưa áo trắng
  21. Tòa bin-đing bỏ không
  22. Bước khẽ tới người thương
  23. Hoa phượng đừng đỏ nữa
  24. Saigon cười một mình
  25. Hồi ký một người mất ngày tháng
  26. Chớp mắt một thời
  27. Nhã Ca Thơ réédition de ses deux recueils de poésie
  28. Đường Tự Do Sài Gòn