Novelist and short-story writer Viet Dinh, winner of the prestigious O. Henry and Pushcart prizes for his short stories, and nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award for his 2016 novel, After Disasters, stopped by junior and senior English classes on Monday, February 10, to talk about characters, the creative process, curiosity, and more.

Around the table, students had the opportunity to discuss Dinh’s short story Food Chain and ask questions about Dinh’s arc as a writer. That evening, Dinh read one of his short stories in Engelhard Hall before engaging with students in a Q&A.

“We brought Viet Dinh to St. Andrew’s because he writes stories that are beautiful and alive,” says English instructor Alec Hill ’12. “His stories are full of humor, sadness, and outrage, and yet his voice is controlled, precise, detailed, and intelligent.” His stories also hinge on intellectual curiosity, Hill notes, which is an essential St. Andrew's value.

Dinh advised Saints to lean into that everyday curiosity to power their writing. “Seeing a person in the street, overhearing an interesting bit of conversation, or even watching a particularly interesting episode of Judge Judy, it can be anything,” he told students. “Start there: ‘I want to know more about this person or this situation or this world, so I’m going to ask those questions.’”

Steele Malkin ’27 found Dinh’s visit inspiring and well-timed, as he and his fellow students in Hill’s class just wrapped their personal essay unit. “Having him in the classroom really helped me understand how to write differently about certain topics, especially when it comes to injecting creative writing in a personal essay,” Malkin says. “I have a better idea now of how I can grow when it comes to fiction and nonfiction scene-building.”

“I think his talk was incredibly relevant to our English discourse because of the themes in his work and his writing style,” adds Ronit Goyal ’27. “His writing conveys a larger message and sets a mood, which ties in to our class’s current book, All The Pretty Horses, which utilizes a similar style. Talking with an author about what they were thinking when they were crafting their stories revealed a lot about how we read in English. It suggests closer examination and deeper thinking about meaning.” 

Dinh closed his talk with a reminder to the young writers in the room to fully mine the messy nature of humans. “Your characters should be actual people and not just puppets for you to manipulate,” he said. “You want them to feel real. You want them to be complex. You want them to make their own mistakes … we are all complex beings. Your writing should embrace all the complexity and contradictions we have as people.”

Before leaving campus, Dinh chatted with a few students who gathered to ask him a few more questions—Goyal being one of them. “Talking with Viet was really fun,” Goyal says. “His insights, his advice, and his creative-thinking process made me more interested in not only reading, but in writing, too.”

This visit was made possible by the Amanda Leyon Fund for Creative Writing. This fund, established in memory of Amanda Leyon '95, also underwrites publication of the Andrean literary magazine and the Amanda Leyon Prize for Creative Writing, presented at Awards Night each year.