In our Spotlight On series, we chat with a member of the Writing NSW community to celebrate their success and learn more about their writing practice. This month we put the spotlight on Vivian Pham, author of the critically-acclaimed novel The Coconut Children. Vivian spoke with our Administration Officer, Nevenya Cameron, about writing her first novel during high school, her research process, and her best advice to emerging writers.

Having your first novel published by Penguin Random House at 19 years of age is an incredible achievement. What was the process towards getting the book published?

It was a communal effort! Every Sunday when I was in Year 11, I attended Story Factory’s Novella Project workshops at the local arts centre. I still remember the day my incredible Extension 2 teacher, Livia Bolanca, handed my class the flyer and bringing that home to show my parents. In my family, anything extracurricular was seen as a burden but I told my parents it was free English tutoring, and off I went! There I met Bilal Hafda, Richard Short and Alison Lyssa, who each have the double-gift of being genius writers as well as life-changing teachers. At the end of the year, I had a manuscript of about 100,000 words. My best friend, Alaa Alfaraon, illustrated the cover. I believe fifty copies were published by Story Factory, enough for all my family, friends and teachers from Birrong Girls High School, and then some.

I thought that was the end of it and was content holding a real – and what’s more, hefty – book in my hands. Then Sheila Pham, the godmother of the Vietnamese Australian artist community and a volunteer at Story Factory, read my book. To my eternal luck, she loved it and made a point of driving to Summer Hill to give it to my superstar agent, Benython Oldfield. I met Benython at Story Factory with my dad, Richard, and Cath, our beloved co-founder, as witnesses. Then Penguin came on board! The best part of that was getting to work with publishing royalty Meredith Curnow, and the noble Patrick Mangan, who I had worked with very closely with the novel’s first iteration because Patrick volunteers his editing powers at Story Factory. Editing took another two years. Patrick will tell you I was emailing banal modifications until the moment the file was carted off to the printing press.

How did being a young writer influence the way The Coconut Children was received by the Australian literary community?

I’m not sure! I think it was received very kindly. I’m still surprised and appreciative that it was taken seriously by the literary community. I write sentimentally – a symptom (or a badge) of my years in fanfiction – so I feel like I’m crossing the bridges between Literature, Beauty, and What I Find Fun constantly.

The story is set in the 1990s in Cabramatta, a generation before your birth, yet the voice is very authentic. What was your research process to achieve this level of authenticity with the setting, voice and characters?

I think I didn’t achieve a true realism with the novel, so I’m inclined to say that wasn’t my intention and that, failing that, I was actually aiming for atmospheric rendering of what it might’ve felt like to grow up during the late nineties. By far, the most important person to my process was my relative who had grown up in southwestern Sydney during the period. He gave Vince a voice. I interviewed my relative over a few months, taking copious notes but mostly enjoying this novel reason to spend time together. I also relied on newspaper articles and Lisa Maher’s academic work for an understanding of how Cabramatta operated as a society within, and yet ostracised by, a society.

The novel powerfully highlights marginalised voices in Australian society. What do you think about the responsibility of fiction authors to explore diverse perspectives in their writing?

I don’t think of this as a responsibility so much as an imperative. It is in the interest of any writer to write about something they feel hasn’t been written about before; that is where we go to mine our gold. At the same time, I also think of bell hooks who said in a 2017 conversation: ‘I read patriarchal men whose work I love. How is it that they can live without reading our work, without wanting to hear our voices? Even if it’s just to be nosy.’ I wish more people would be nosy!

Your writing explores complex tensions in family relationships and the Australian migrant experience. Which other Australian writers do you feel have captured these types of stories?

Kim Pham, Yumna Kassab, Zaheda Ghani and Alice Pung.

You wrote The Coconut Children while in high school, and then went on to study at university. What are you currently working on, and how do you balance the competing priorities of being a student and a novelist?

I finished my Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Creative Writing last year! Being a student as well as a writer was beneficial for me because having classes you don’t want to be in and required reading lists to ignore focuses your mind more sharply on what it is you’d rather be doing: writing. Recently, the balance has been between writing longform, working on short commissioned pieces and working as a creative writing workshop facilitator with Story Factory. I’m currently in New York on a residency at Millay Arts, working on a new novel.

What advice would you give to a young, emerging writer with aspirations to publish a novel in Australia?

Try to find communities wherever you are and wherever you go, one friend at a time. Creating art itself can take turns being exhilarating, boring and painful. Having friends and mentors to wade with you through times of doubt is the reason I’m still able to write. Keep in mind what others are doing and pay attention to when you can lift them up too! Almost everything exciting that’s happened to me has happened because someone decided to mention my name in an important room.

Vivian Pham is a Vietnamese novelist, essayist, poet and aspiring folklorist from south-western Sydney. In high school she wrote a novel called The Coconut Children, which was published in March 2020 by Penguin Random House. In 2021 she won the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist Award and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year for her work. She has twice attended the International Congress of Youth Voices, a summit for young activists nominated by nonprofits around the world for their writing and engagement. In 2023, she received the DVAN-Millay New Author residency at the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay’s iconic Steepletop residence in New York for the month of October.

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