The Saint

Story by Anna Benstead, Culture Editor

Dustin M. Hoffman was the most recent writer to visit Aquinas campus on Thursday, November 16 as part of the final installment of the Contemporary Writers Series this semester. He is a creative non-fiction writer with multiple published short story collections, such as “No Good for Digging” (2019) and “100 Knuckled Fist” (2016). His next collection, “Such a Good Man” is scheduled for release in 2025. 

Student Summer Hickok gave the introduction before the presentation and listed Hoffman’s many accomplishments, especially noting that he just published his 100th piece to be accepted into a literary magazine. He wanted to be sure that writers everywhere knew his great accomplishment took time and came with “1,800 rejections” which got a big laugh from the audience. 

Hoffman tells stories of working-class people because that is where he got his beginning. He began his academic career at community college working full time in a construction crew and as the lead singer in a ska band. He worked long 12-hour days on the construction sites, eventually learning enough to open his own company. This is where most of his stories were inspired. 

During the presentation he read 6 pieces of work, two not yet published coming out in “Such a Good Man.” The first piece was called “Can Picking” and resonated very strongly with native Michiganders because it detailed the struggles of a few guys from the same construction company off the clock, while they rush to pick up cans under the MSU football stadium bleachers before they get caught by security and the clean up crew, to bring home a little extra in their paychecks that week. 

His piece “The Nesting” which he also read, is written in exactly 100 words. “I liked the challenge of such specific parameters,” he said. That narrative tells of a family of birds who got trapped in the walls of a new house and the painters blame the drywallers, who blame the framers, who blame those who built the foundation. 

His stories are often about the little things and told in immaculate detail, appealing to every sense.

Summer Hickok gives the introduction while Dustin M. Hoffman (author) and Laura Nmec Foster (sponsor of CWS) watch

Photos Courtesy of the Editor