When my father died, all I had left of him was a book.
The book was only half written. It existed as four tiny word documents on his old computer, which were rescued and copied to disk just seconds before the computer sparked and lost power. The computer never worked again, but what he wrote about his memories now survives him. The parts of his life that he didn’t write down are gone forever. The parts he did write still remain.
Publishing Dad’s half-written book changed my life. It taught me the importance of writing books to preserve life stories worth sharing, especially those of the people you love. As a result of this experience, I founded Metro Writers in Ho Chi Minh City to share what I discovered with Vietnam.
Since that time, Metro Writers has produced several important books about key Vietnamese figures, from beloved singer Phi Nhung to “miracle child” Thien Nhan; from businesswoman Le Hoang Diep Thao to traditional fashion designer Vo Viet Chung; from journalists Vu Tu Nam and Thanh Huong to top chefs Jack Lee and Trinh Diem Vy.
All this while, I have remained determined to speak to my mother about her memories so her story could be preserved in a book too. Sadly, when she developed dementia, most of her stories were lost. All my questions no longer have any answers, and they remain unasked. I was too late.
Hoping that people here won’t make the same mistake, I’m sharing my understanding of how inexperienced writers can learn to write books – based on the systems we developed at Metro Writers – to bring this concept to people young and old in Vietnam. In a country where family is the most important relationship of our lifetimes, CHUYỆN BỐ MẸ CHƯA KỂ (HOW TO WRITE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR PARENTS) offers fresh tools and new ideas about how to strengthen and deepen our family ties.
The Metro Writers HOW TO WRITE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR PARENTS campaign launches Tết 2025, with our first writing guide scheduled for release next March.
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