Daniel Spero
Writer · Editor
I write about the kind of lives that don’t fit neatly anywhere: expats adrift in Southeast Asia, lives cut short or extended in unexpected directions, soldiers and survivors and true believers. My work spans fiction, memoir, biography and life writing, and all of it follows the same instinct: find the honest moment and don’t flinch. I lived in Vietnam long enough to understand the place, and I’m still curious enough to keep writing about it.
My next book, Talking Turki, is a memoir of cross-cultural philosophical dialogue on Islam during the Covid lockdown, due for release in 2026.
Contact:
• Email: spero.daniel@gmail.com
• Website: danielspero.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/daniel-spero/
Biography
Daniel Spero is an American writer, editor and creative director formerly based in Ho Chi Minh City. A prolific and genre-defying literary voice, he is the author of more than a dozen books spanning fiction, memoir, pictorial biography and speculative short fiction, with a body of work that has been described as fearless, subversive and rooted in unfiltered truth.
Born in the United States, Spero began his career as a journalist and freelance writer, contributing to newspapers, magazines and online publications over two decades. He came to Southeast Asia as many writers do – in search of material, or escape, or both – and found his place in Ho Chi Minh City. His expat writing, including the pictorial memoirs A Life in Saigon and The Greek Tragedy, established him as one of the most candid chroniclers of Western life in modern Vietnam.
His independent fiction ranges from the gonzo Phish-tour memoir Fall 98 to the genre-bending story collection The Dead Beats, from the darkly comic expat novel Hun King the Ice-Head to the dystopian sci-fi collection Wait for Juan. Across all of it, his voice is consistent: biting, honest, and alive to the absurd. He has also edited a WWII pictorial memoir drawn from his own family history, The World War II Diary of Captain George B. Spero.
As a partner writer and editor at Metro Writers, Spero brings his editorial experience and his instinct for authentic storytelling to the production of biography and life writing for private clients and public figures. He has contributed to Metro Writers productions including The Queen of King Coffee and An Emissary from Heaven, and has written for Oi Vietnam magazine. His forthcoming book, Talking Turki, is expected in 2026.
Publications and credentials
Author/Contributing Writer/Editor
Media and publication credits
- Michael Alkan – Israeli Doctor – Oi Vietnam – 2019
- Oi Vietnam – Contributing Writer · 2018–2020
- US print and online journalism – Contributor (various outlets) 2000s–2010s
Patch (Rhode Island) – Contributor
Writing sample
“Demitrios and his dad lead the group through Paleopanayia on foot, with other families following suit to form a procession; each man trekking, leading the women and children out of town on donkey’s east down a meandering lane toward Taygetos.
It takes the entirety of the day for the villagers to traverse 15 kilometers down the rutty route through the forested hills before reaching a rudimentary hall at the foot of Taygetos near sunset. The children arrange the bedding, the women prepare food, while the men build fires and drink wine. After dinner there’s a period of children playing, the wives gabbing in neighborhood clichés, and the men drinking more wine; some playing string instruments like kitharas and lyres, a few others on double-reed aulos and flutes. Before long however, the villagers find their beds and retire to slumber.”
— from “The Dead Beats” by Daniel Spero
Interested in working with Daniel Spero?
Work with this partner
You are welcome to get in touch directly, or to enquire through Metro Writers if your project requires a full production team.