Ocean Vuong's Partner's Grandmother Is the Inspiration Behind Grazina in 'The Emperor of Gladness'

Author Ocean Vuong has been breaking boundaries in the literary world with his words and style, something many say is unlike anything they've ever read before. His latest release, The Emperor of Gladness, which came out on May 13, 2025, stole Oprah’s heart, with her even going as far as calling it one of the best books she’s ever read.

Ocean has truly proven himself to be a one-of-a-kind writer and has garnered plenty of attention for it.

But is there a special someone he shares his triumphs with — and leans on during his more vulnerable moments? Who is Ocean Vuong’s partner, if he has one?

Ocean Vuong’s longtime partner is Peter Bienkowski, a former lawyer he met during a brief eight-week stint at business school, as he revealed in a 2017 interview with The Guardian. In fact, he admitted Peter was "the one good thing to have come out" of his time there.

What’s also interesting is that it was Peter’s grandmother who inspired the character Grazina — an 82-year-old Lithuanian woman with dementia — in The Emperor of Gladness, Ocean shared during his 2025 interview with The New York Times.

In that same interview, he recalled that after dropping out of Pace University and losing his housing, he was homeless for about two and a half weeks, living in Penn Station. One day, when he and Peter arrived at Penn, Peter asked where he was going to go, and Ocean replied, "Um, I’m here."

Peter’s immediate response was, "Oh, my God," and by the next day, though Ocean said he would have understood if Peter never wanted to speak to him again, Peter called and invited him to stay with his grandmother, Grazina, who lived in Richmond Hill at the time.

Ocean ended up living there for the next two and a half years, even lending a hand in helping to care for Peter’s grandmother. Over time, Peter began visiting more and more, which eventually led Ocean to ask, "Are we dating, are we not, what is happening? I’m living with your grandmother." At some point, it seems they solidified their relationship, and they’ve been happily together ever since.

Despite being close with his family — he grew up in a seven-member household that included extended relatives — Ocean expected the worst when it came time to open up to his mother and share who he really was, he revealed in a 2019 interview with Poets & Writers.

In fact, he admitted he thought he would be "exiled from his family." So, at 17, he prepared for the fallout. He had a bus ticket and $2,000 in cash he’d saved from working at Panera Bread. He was so sure his mother would turn him away that he approached the conversation with a packed bag in hand.

"But that rejection never came," Ocean explained. And for the first time, he began to "imagine a future in Hartford the way his family had so many years ago." And presumably that future looked bright, because since then, Ocean has gone on to do incredible things and maintain a long, loving relationship.