Perhaps best known are the Black Thai epics Xong chụ xon xao and Khun Lu Nang Ủa, part of a valuable Thai literary legacy which embraces everything from histories and legends to riddles and humorous tales. The Tay and Nung communities of the Việt Bắc developed their own version of the chữ nom script from an early date and the literary heritage of the Tay in particular is also noteworthy, comprising as it does a range of epic poems (Nam Kim-Thị Đan, Lương Quan Biooc Rốm), histories (Nung Tri Cao, Nung Văn Van) and ancestral myths (Pu Luong-Gia Cải), some of which date back to the 16th century. Folk tales and legends from both the Mường and the Dao ethnic minorities have also been preserved and published.

Six ethnic groups of Tay Nguyen (the central highlands) - the Malay-Polynesian E-đe, Ra-glai, Gia-rai and Ba-na and the Mon-Khmer Xơ-đăng and M'nong - preserve a rich corpus of oral literature. These include the epic poems of the E-đe (Đam San, Đăm Kteh Mlan, Sing Nha, Đam Di, Khing Juh, Đăm Thih), the Ra-glai (Uya Yuhea) and the Xơ-đăng (Dăm Giong), but perhaps best known is the Ốt N'Rong, a 30,000-verse M'nong epic discovered in 1988 which surpasses the Ramayana, the Odyssey and even the Iliad in size. A 21 billion VNĐ (cUS$1.3 million) project launched in 2001 by the Việt Nam Academy of Social Sciences aims to survey, collect, document, translate, archive and publish the oral literature of the central highlands before it is lost.

In recent years the ethnic minority communities have produced numerous contemporary writers of note. Foremost amongst Việt Nam's ethnic minority poets are Lo Văn Mười (b 1913, Thai ethnic group), Ban Tai Đoan (b 1913, Dao ethnic group), Cầm Bieu (b 1920, Thai ethnic group), Nong Quốc Chấn (b 1923, Tay ethnic group), Hoang No (b 1925, Thai ethnic group), Nong Viết Toại (b 1926, Tay ethnic group), Lương Quy Nhan (1926-1996, Thai ethnic group), Lo Văn Cậy (b 1928, Thai ethnic group), Y Điệng (b 1928, E-đe ethnic group), Hung Đinh Quy (b 1938, H'mong ethnic group), Vương Trung (b 1938, Thai ethnic group), Nay No (b 1942, Gia Rai ethnic group), Lo Ngan Sủn (b 1945, Giay ethnic group), Pờ Sảo Min (b 1946, Pa Di ethnic group), Y Phương (Hứa Vĩnh Sước, b 1948, Tay ethnic group) and Inrasara (Phu Trạm, b 1957, Chăm ethnic group). The ethnic minority communities have also produced a handful of important prose writers, including Nong Minh Chau (1924-1979, Tay ethnic group), Ma Trường Nguyen (b 1944, Tay ethnic group) and Linh Nga Niek Đăm (b 1948, E-đe ethnic group).