Dear readers,

 

My name is Minh-Tam Le. I was born during the hour of the Ox on 20th October 1989, a little past my due date. My mother told me I was stubborn. My youngest sister, Linh, said I was likely fascinated with the human anatomy. Either way, I didn't want to leave the womb where I received nine months of free shelter and food. Maybe I feared the challenges I would face. Take the COVID-19 pandemic. Aiyah!

 

After more than twenty-fours in labor, my mother's obstetrician, a doctor with hair like Dr. Frankenstein, played by Gene Wilder, urged my mother to seriously consider getting a C-section. That's when I budged. If I was coming out, it was going to be the natural way. Because my parents were often working late, I spent the first part of my childhood with my grandmother, Trang. My grandmother was born in Vietnam. She is the second of five children and now, due to the pandemic, lives in Vietnam.  

​

My maternal grandparents left Vietnam on April 30, 1975 with six young children on a cargo ship. Their house was burned by the Vietcong. They immigrated to and from the Philippines to various states before settling in northern Virginia where most of my extended family lives. 

 

My father is the second oldest of eight children. In 1980, he fled Vietnam on a small rickety boat with other refugees. Once the boat sailed into international waters, they were rescued by the Cap Anamur. He had $20 and a gold ring in his pocket from my paternal grandmother. The ship landed in Palwan, Philippines where he lived for six months at the Palawan Refugee Camp before he was transferred ten hours north to the Bataan Refugee Camp. For three months he learned English before leaving for the U.S.

​

I am the oldest of four children and the first to graduate from college. I moved to Florida in 2003 where I finished the second half of 8th grade at Buddy Taylor Middle School and then attended Flagler Palm Coast High School.  I was in the IB Program and graduated in 2008 in the top 1% of the class.

 

I don't remember when it started, but I've always loved to read. You know you're a bookworm when one of your dreams is to own a book display like in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Some of my favorites reads are Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I received my first copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from my aunt, Le, in 2000.  I would save my "li xi" (red envelope money) from Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) for the biannual Scholastic Book Fairs at my elementary school. Now I've held back on buying books just to make moving a little easier. 

​

​

Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.

​

—Vera Nazarian, Dreams of the Compass Rose

​

 

I started creative writing at Crestwood Elementary, primarily in the 6th grade. I loved it but didn't dig into the field until my early years of college.  I wrote my poem Identity during the latter half of the 8th grade, which was published online by Poetic Matrix a few years later. 

​

I started writing my first novel during the 7th grade and gradually began to create the world where The Serpent Sisters is based. That first novel remains unpublished as I realized I wanted to write for an older audience. I began The Serpent Sisters in 2012. 

​

I was accepted at several colleges but chose the University of Florida (UF). It was the closest to home and I had a full-ride scholarship. During my four years, I met many wonderful people, who continue to support me today. I took two creative writing courses and my award-winning short story, Dinner, was born during one of those courses.

 

I continued my investigation of the health profession through shadowing opportunities, health fairs and talks, and community engagements. Before I graduated from UF in May 2012, I started my role as a blogger for Sparks Magazine. I have interviewed several people, such as Thao Le, a literary agent at Sandra Dijkstra & Associates, and Tammy Nguyen Le, the ATG President/Co-Founder and Director of the documentary Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam.

 

During fall 2012, I attended the 10-month Advanced Biomedical Sciences Certificate Program, a collaboration between George Mason University and Georgetown University. This enabled me to transition to Georgetown University and graduate in July 2014 with a Master of Science in Physiology and Biophysics. 

​

It was evident to me that I loved medicine, but after my time at UF, and based on what I learned at Georgetown University, I wasn't 100% sure if I wanted to pursue medicine as a doctor. I decided to take time off school and got a job at Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine, FL as an ER scribe. I loved working there although there were tough days. After almost two years, I felt it was time to go back to school. I was accepted into the George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health and graduated in 2017 with a Master of Public Health in Global Health Communication.

​

During late 2016-2017, I decided to find a literary agent for The Serpent Sisters, while sending out works to be considered at literary magazines. My poem Pocket Snow was accepted and published on Literary Juice in August 2017. 

​

If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.

​

—Wally Lamb, She's Come Undone

​

​

As an ER scribe, I learned more about the physician assistant profession and decided to apply to PA schools in 2016. I had shadowed two physician assistants and encountered a few while working as an ER scribe. I felt that the profession meshed well with my passion for medicine and what I wanted in life. 

​

I completed the Emerging Leaders MA/PA program at Wake Forest University from 2017-2020 and now am a practicing physician assistant in Winston-Salem, NC. Dreams do come true! Although we've lost a lot in the last two years and 2022 continues to bombard us with challenges, I've been blessed with works accepted in Brilliant Flash Fiction and Toasted Cheese Literary Journey. Keep swimming amigos.

 

​

​

Respectfully,

​

MTL

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

For more information about my activities in college and engagement with the community, check out my LinkedIn profile.