
he/him
Nguyen Hoang Gia Bao (Bao) is a multimedia poet from Vietnam, whose work blends poetry with visual and sound art. His writings and multimedia pieces have appeared in prominent publications and platforms such as Rivering (RMIT Australia), Sui Generis (Bard College), Voice and Verse Poetry Magazine (Hong Kong) Vănguard, Radiophrenia (Glasgow), and WXCB Radio (Bard College). Bao is working on his debut poetry collection, Mai Tang Tuoi Tho (A Eulogy for Childhood).
Born in Hai Phong, a coastal city in northern Vietnam, Bao grew up in a traditional socialist household, with his father as a civil servant and his mother as a secondary school teacher. His earliest childhood memory is of being left alone at home while his parents worked until 5 PM. The 4-year-old Bao would take pencils and notebooks from his father’s post office to draw and write. Mẹ (mother) became his first muse and archivist. These early works were graphic narratives and short poems about family life. Since then, creative writing has been Bao's refuge and coping mechanism against loneliness and anxiety.
Now based in Saigon, Bao holds a BA in Art and Media Studies, with a minor in Vietnam Studies, from Fulbright University Vietnam. His work, influenced by Dadaism and Fluxus, is iconoclastic, unhinged, and satirical, challenging the conventional boundaries of poetry. Bao’s art seeks to desacralize the traditional notions of language, offering an (anti)reading that exposes the failures of words, the absence of typography, phonaesthetics, translation, and adaptation. He practices digital poetry through a multidisciplinary lens, incorporating animation, sound art, curatorial practice, and performance art.
contributed to
vănguard 6
contact
@nguyenhoanggiabao_