Writer Ho Thuy Giang - The one who "passes on the fire" of literature

Ho Thuy Giang is one of the leading writers of Thai Nguyen province, with many outstanding literary achievements, admired by many literature lovers. His life is a testament to his hard work and passion on the path of literary creation. More preciously, with his knowledge and experience, he is ready to "pass on his profession" to many people.

My impression of writer Ho Thuy Giang is his small stature, warm voice, and especially his excellent memory. Many people still call him an encyclopedia, because in most fields he shows quite a thorough understanding (this is clearly shown in his works). Ho Thuy Giang is also a very meticulous, thoughtful, simple, and humble person, so he is loved by his fellow writers.

Talking about the opportunity to come to literature, writer Ho Thuy Giang did not hesitate to share: Professional writing is my choice, my commitment, not by chance. With my passion for writing, after having my poems and short stories published, this initial sweet achievement fueled my love for literature so that later I could delve into the path of writing many works on the topic of rural industrialization. In particular, in 1971, with the work "The Chain Girl", I received an award from the Literature and Arts Newspaper - Vietnam Writers Association .

Before turning to professional writing, Ho Thuy Giang was a Literature teacher at Dai Tu Secondary School (1969-1980). During his self-study to become a writer, he read books of many genres, experimented with writing, reading and editing with an endless passion. Also during the time of both teaching and writing, he also made many people admire him when he tried to finish the university program.

1980 marked a turning point in his life when he received the decision to transfer to work at the Department of Culture and Information of the province, working at the Committee for the establishment of the Thai Nguyen Literature and Arts Association. From then on, he had more time to devote himself to and create literature, officially becoming a professional writer.

Ho Thuy Giang was first known in the literary world with the nickname “the short story tree”. Over half of his literary legacy is short story collections, typically: “Miss Xich Cake”, “Cuong Phong”, “Nguoi dep thuong nhieu bi bien”, “Khong la phan anh”… Being a multi-talented person, he wanted to try his hand in every field and the wonderful thing is that in every field he has reaped many awards from the Central and local levels.

Writer Vu Nho commented that he is a veteran writer of Thai Nguyen because for more than half of his writing life, he has made constant efforts and has dozens of books in the genres of poetry, short stories, novels, literary criticism and film scripts. However, writer Vu Nho highly appreciated Ho Thuy Giang in the genre of short stories. His literary career has left a deep impression on Thai Nguyen's literary scene, his works have been chosen by 4 authors as master's thesis topics. He and writer Vi Hong have had many works selected for primary school textbooks in the subject of Vietnamese. Some of his works have also been included in theteaching of Literature - Local History in schools in the province.

As for the novel genre, although he started writing late, in less than 10 years, writer Ho Thuy Giang has published many books, including 5 works that won the Central Award such as: "Forest Eyes", "Pathfinders", "Thai Nguyen - 1917", "Mountain Town", "Mountain Flowers".

More specifically, he has 4 historical novels about the land and people of Thai Nguyen (Prime Minister Luu Nhan Chu, Thai Nguyen - 1917, The Pioneers, The Mountain Flowers).

It was a pleasure to publish local historical novels, writer Ho Thuy Giang was sponsored by Mr. Nguyen Van Thang, Chairman of the Board of Directors of An Khanh Group, a fellow countryman who loved and respected the writer, so the books were donated to all school libraries in the province.

In 2016, I and other literature lovers in the province participated in the first Writing Class directly taught by writer Ho Thuy Giang (at that time in Thai Nguyen and many other localities in the country, there was almost no precedent for writers opening writing classes). Nearly 20 of us students of different ages, occupations, and levels, but all shared a passion for literature, entered the class with enthusiasm, volunteerism, and effort.

Journalist and writer Minh Hang, a member of the provincial Literature and Arts Association, excitedly said: With the method of reading, writing, and discussing a lot, we were equipped by Mr. Ho Thuy Giang with the basic theoretical foundation of literature, the method of writing prose genres such as: short stories, novels, essays, criticism, film scripts. In every class, the teacher "throws" out issues for the class to discuss such as topics, themes, characters, plot, structure, expression, method, creative inspiration, etc.

What we appreciate most is the learning process where the teacher “holds our hands and guides us through the process”. Each student’s work is brought to class for everyone to discuss and give feedback, and the teacher clearly points out the strengths and weaknesses so that we are no longer confused when we have a poetic idea or story idea but do not know how to develop it, or how to write an essay with emotion… Above all, the teacher always “inspires” everyone to passionately follow their creative path.

Less than half a year after attending the class, all students in the class had quality works published in Thai Nguyen Newspaper, Thai Nguyen Literature and Arts, and several provincial literature magazines. By the end of the class (April 2017), nearly 100 works from the class had been published, mainly short stories and poems.

After the course, we all learned the skills of writing prose and poetry, and more importantly, he always cared for us, encouraged us, and instilled in us a love for literature. Many students have written poems and prose published in newspapers in and outside the province, and published books that were evaluated as good quality by the Provincial Literature and Arts Association. What was even more joyful was that four members of the class, with their efforts in writing, were admitted to the Provincial Literature and Arts Association in 2017.

A teacher’s happiness is when he sees the success of many generations of students. And writer Ho Thuy Giang is no exception. Talking to us, he shared: The success of the writing courses is beyond my imagination. The end of each course is the beginning of each individual’s literary career.

Initially, many people, including prominent writers from Thai Nguyen, were skeptical about the success of writer Ho Thuy Giang’s first writing class. However, the serious learning attitude of the students and the impressive results of the writing classes made them look at it differently.

Writer Pham Duc, former Head of the Prose Association, Provincial Literature and Arts Association, commented: Ho Thuy Giang is not only admired by his writing friends for his talent, but more importantly, for his heart towards his literary friends. From the time he became editor of Thai Nguyen Literature and Arts Newspaper until his retirement, he always read his friends' works carefully and gave thoughtful advice to the authors. In particular, he devoted a lot of time and effort to new writers, participating in teaching many training courses on children's literature and young literature, many of whom later became writers, journalists, Associate Professors, PhDs of Literature, etc. I myself was also helped a lot by Ho Thuy Giang in the process of writing, and then became a member of the Vietnam Writers Association.

Up to now, writer Ho Thuy Giang has taught 3 classes of students, many of whom have become "sharp" writers, prominent in Thai Nguyen's literary scene such as: Phan Thai, Minh Hang, Tiet Minh Ha, Hoang Thi Hien, Tran Thi Nhung, Vo Thi Thu Hang, La Thi Thong... Currently, he is teaching the 4th class.

Writer Ho Thuy Giang happily “showed off” to us many collections of poems, short stories, novels, and essays by students that were evaluated by the Provincial Literature and Arts Association as being of good quality. He was even happier when some authors received awards from the Central and the province. From here, the Literature and Arts Association also recruited many new promising members.

Teaching is the noblest of all noble professions, and being a teacher in the literary profession is even more special. Although writer Ho Thuy Giang is always modest and does not consider himself a teacher, generations of his students respect and gratefully call him “Teacher”.

Poet Vo Thi Thu Hang, member of the provincial Literature and Arts Association, a student of the third writing class of writer Ho Thuy Giang, shared: The teacher did not let us call him teacher, but told us to be literary friends, not to learn writing but to share the passion for writing. However, in our hearts, we always respect and are grateful to the teacher - the silent "ferryman".

After half a century of hard work and many achievements in his professional writing career, writer and teacher Ho Thuy Giang still spends a lot of time writing and "passing the torch" to generations of students. He always hopes that every literature lover will be nurtured with more love, find and develop their abilities, and make many contributions to the literary and artistic career of the province and the whole country...