Diana Khoi Nguyen

Poet and multimedia artist Diana Khoi Nguyen earned a BA in English and Communication Studies from UCLA, an MFA from Columbia University, and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. She is the author of the chaplet Unless (Belladonna*, 2019), and poetry collections Ghost Of (Omnidawn Publishing, 2018) and Root Fractures (Scribner, 2024).

Ghost Of  was selected by Terrance Hayes for the Omnidawn Open Contest, was a finalist for the National Book Award and L.A. Times Book Prize, and received both 2019 the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and Colorado Book Award. Her poems, prose, and multimedia work have appeared widely in magazines and journals such as Poetry, American Poetry Review, and PEN America, among others. Her video work has been exhibited at the Miller ICA and elsewhere.

A MacDowell fellow and member of the Vietnamese diasporic artist collective, She Who Has No Master(s), Nguyen’s other honors include awards from the 92Y "Discovery" Poetry Contest, Key West Literary Seminars, and Academy of American Poets. She has received scholarships and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. In 2022, she was an artist-in-residence at Brown University, and in 2024, she was an author-in-residence at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In addition to teaching at Pitt, she is a mentor for writers of color via the Periplus mentorship program, teaches creative writing at Randolph College's Low-Residency MFA Program, and has taught at summer workshops such as the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal, and Southampton Writers Conference.

Teaching and Writing

In the classroom, I always try to go there—beyond any boundaries which may comprise (and confine) both in the classroom and in creating writing tradition. Formal boundaries often keep students and educators from talking about personal matters or topics considered gross, taboo, or uncomfortable.
I seek to cultivate a creative space in the classroom in which participants may engage in exploration of underrepresented and at times deeply emotional themes through open, honest, and respectful dialogues. Because I teach creative writing, it is crucial that students delve into difficult topics, to take them apart, try to sympathize, empathize, and understand how these issues operate and affect oneself and others—because whether they are writing poems, stories, or personal essays, they are all world-makers of visual and linguistic means, and it is imperative that these worlds are dynamic, that they bear verisimilitude to the conditions of consciousness and existence: emotion, feeling, impulse, uncertainty, discovery, to name a few.

But to anchor the writer through this at times precarious process, I support and advocate for risk- taking and play, but from a play of security and safety first.

Courses Taught

Undergraduate Courses:

Introduction to Poetry

Poetry Writing

Senior Seminar in Poetry

Readings in Contemporary Poetry

MFA Courses:

Poetry Workshop

Readings in Contemporary Poetry

Life Outside of the MFA

Introduction to the MFA