Making Riddles Out of Answers

Lan Samantha Chang MPA2 1991

Policymakers, politicians, and public servants — they make up the bulk of the Kennedy School alumni database. But look for professional fiction writers and you’re certain to come up with fewer than a handful. In fact, Lan Samantha Chang MPA2 1991, whose first novel, Hunger, was recently published, could be one of the very few. So how did a woman whose dream even as a child was to one day be a writer, end up at a graduate school whose mission is to prepare future leaders and solve global problems? In an interview from her office at the
Iowa Writers’ Workshop (the country’s oldest creative writing degree program, which includes distinguished graduates such as Flannery O’Connor and Andre Dubus), where she spent the spring and summer teaching, Chang discussed her path to the Kennedy School and her current fellowship at Princeton.

Q You’re a fiction writer. So why the Kennedy School?

When I enrolled, I was 24 years old and trying to convince myself that I would be happy in what I called a "real" job — the kind of job where I would show up every day at work and engage with the world in a constructive way. The Kennedy School was, and is, in my opinion, a place where intelligent and dynamic people prepare themselves for such jobs. But not long after I began my coursework, I realized that I was not cut out for that kind of work. Classes emphasized group collaboration designed to solve problems. I love working alone; moreover, I feel far more comfortable exploring the different sides of problems than I do solving them. As [Austrian satirist Karl] Kraus wrote, "A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer." This kind of thinking would make a mare’s nest if applied to policymaking. Still, I stayed on to finish my degree, and I’m glad I did.

Q Did any KSG people ever find their way into your characters?

There haven’t been any characters based directly on KSG people, but my KSG experiences had a direct impact on my writing. Politics is about human nature, and I had an opportunity, through reading case studies and taking certain courses, to learn about the kinds of issues that are particularly challenging to societies.

Q How did you get into fiction writing?

I have wanted to be a writer since before I could read. As a child, I copied picture books out onto sheets of paper, with the illustrations and all of the letters, before I could even put the letters together to form words. I loved books and wanted to have my own collection. My parents, on the other hand, grew up in a wartime atmosphere where any extraneous possessions were weeded out. My mother didn’t think it was necessary for us children to buy novels. Sometimes I think that my parents’ ideas gave rise to my desire to create books: if owning as many books as I wanted was not possible, then perhaps I could literally make my own.

Q Did writing come naturally to you?

In general I find writing rather difficult. I’ve never been very articulate, in my opinion, and I also lack the ability to think with the specificity that leads to detailed, convincing writing. But I do believe that things "clicked" while I was actually studying at the KSG. I had begun taking classes at the Cambridge and Boston Centers for Adult Education, and somehow the act of doing the work for those classes, along with my realization that I wouldn’t be happy in government, combined to give me a focus I hadn’t had before.