Former Heritage editor Tran Mai Anh fronts English language book service
Local media figure Tran Mai Anh—who helmed Vietnam Airlines’ inflight magazine Heritage for 20 years and is best known for her charity work fundraising for Vietnamese children in need of medical treatment—is now serving as front person for English-language book production label Metro Writers.
The label represents a bureau of foreign and local writers based in Vietnam working to create prestigious books about important and inspirational Vietnamese personalities in the English language. The agency is responsible for writing and translating the content and arranging for international publication.
While biographies of luminary figures such as business leaders, artists and celebrities are amongst the most common and popular book genres in many countries, there is a profound lack of Vietnamese representation within the category.
“Very few influential Vietnamese personalities are recognised abroad, and even fewer important stories about Vietnamese people are ever told in English,” says Tran Mai Anh, who will represent Metro Writers as its executive editor of works written in Vietnamese for translation or reproduction in English. “I have worked for years to ensure international readers of Heritage get a window into our country while travelling on our national airline by publishing stories in both English and Vietnamese. Producing full-length books in English about important Vietnamese figures is an opportunity for me to take a more substantial approach in these efforts.”
Mme. Mai Anh hopes that many leading local figures will consider releasing their life stories as a contribution to Vietnamese culture and a duty to inspire the younger generation to look up to Vietnamese, rather than foreign, role models. At the same time, she notes the power of biographies and business leadership books to bring attention, celebrity and business opportunities to those who share their stories and ideas.
Last year, Mme. Mai Anh released an English translation of her own memoir through Metro Writers, A Journey of Love—The Story of Thien Nhan. Her second collaboration with Metro Writers, the story tells of her adopted son Nhan, who was brutally attacked by wild animals after being abandoned as a baby. The book, released for global sale on Amazon, describes the complex series of genital reconstructive procedures Nhan endures as an infant while revealing how his supportive and loving family environment allows him to experience a stable, normal childhood.
Tran Mai Anh with Metro Writers English Executive Editor Michael Arnold (centre)
Tran Mai Anh first collaborated with Metro Writers in 2017 on a translation of her father’s award-winning Vietnam War-era opus A War Account 1-2-3-4.75, a highly impactful volume tracing the fall of the South Vietnamese regime in the months before their defeat.
“My work with Metro Writers has allowed me to take important stories from my own family and bring them to readers around the world,” adds Mai Anh. “I’m looking forward to developing this platform so that more Vietnamese writers will be able to have their books translated into English and released internationally—as well as being involved in creating new volumes about high-profile Vietnamese individuals who understand the prestige of having their personal or business stories written and published in English.”
Following the publication of their latest book, Tran Mai Anh will solicit manuscripts from established Vietnamese writers seeking to have their work available internationally, and will make arrangements for Metro Writers’ services to be available for business luminaries and influencers aspiring to be known abroad.
While heavily engaged in charitable relief efforts to fund breathing machines for patients affected by Vietnam’s current Covid-19 outbreak, Mme. Mai Anh is currently preparing three biographies for powerful Vietnamese female entrepreneurs through Metro Writers as part of the service’s special commitment to releasing inspirational books for young Vietnamese women. The first of these books is expected to be published internationally later this year.
A Journey of Love—The Story of Thien Nhan is exclusively available at Amazon at https://amzn.to/3jQ8CHQ. All sale proceeds will be donated to the Thien Nhan and Friends charity. A Journey of Love was first published in Vietnamese in 2016 by Kim Dong Publishing House as Hành Trình Yêu Thương: Nhật Kí Thiện Nhân by Trần Mai Anh.