Reflection on Vanessa Hua

Vanessa Hua, a prolific Asian-American author, came last week to speak at Poly. She discussed her two published novel, A River of Stars, and her collection of short stories, Deceit and Other Possibilities. Hua read an excerpt of her collection of short stories on a student who falsely claimed acceptance into Stanford University alluding to two topics, the first being the struggle that many authors face of presenting a story outside of their experience and the second being the dangers of stereotyping and grouping large groups of people together. Hua used this story of an Asian-American student tricking those around her to attend a prestigious university without acceptance to combat the Model Minority Myth revealing that within every group of people there is always a range of characteristics and endings including both failures and successes. Hua also alluded to the depiction of a story outside of the author’s own experience. She described the importance that she placed on the accuracy of all stories but especially those outside of her own expertise. She revealed the extent that she went to research and use authentic information in all of her writing. Hua discusses the life of writers, needing to balance multiple projects at once in order to sustain themselves in their journey as writers. In addition to her process, Hua also explained the importance of exposing young students to the works of authors that are from minorities. Similar to Reyna Grande, she was inspired by authors that shared a similar story to herself. She believes that having the exposure to stories of those sharing a background opens many more doors and possible futures to students who face the challenge of finding themselves in media like movies and books. It was a privilege to be able to listen to Vanessa Hua and learn about her story as an Asian-American writer.