Mel Robbins

If you feel lost in life, today's guest will help you find purpose and meaning.

Ocean Vuong is a bestselling author and an award-winning poet.

His debut novel, On Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous, became an instant New York Times bestseller.

It earned him the American Book Award, the Mark Twain Award, and the New England Book Award.

That same year, he received a MacArthur Genius Grant.

He's also the author of two celebrated poetry collections, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, which won the T.S.

Eliot Prize, and Time is a Mother, a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize.

His newest novel, The Emperor of Gladness, was chosen as Oprah's book club pick and debuted on the New York Times bestseller list.

And it's one of the best books I have ever read.

I give it to people as a gift over and over and over again.

And after I read the book, I started researching more about Ocean and was so moved by some of the things he was sharing in interviews and some of the stuff he was writing about online, I knew that I had to get him here on the podcast.

Ocean is currently a tenured professor of creative writing at NYU, where he teaches in the MFA program for poetry and poetics.

But what truly sets Ocean apart isn't the accolades.

It's the way he writes.

He puts words to what the rest of us only feel.

And somehow, he turns our quietest pain into something meaningful.

even beautiful.

I cannot wait for you to meet Ocean.

So without further ado, please help me welcome Ocean Vaughn to the Mel Robbins Podcast.

Thank you so much for having me.