Nguyễn Diệu Linh, born on September 3, 1978, is better known under her pen name Di Li. A Hanoian, Linh has devoted a lot of her time to learning. She has two bachelor’s degrees, one in English and one in German languages, and a master’s degree in education management. She now works as teacher of English at the Hà Nội Commercial and Tourism College, an advertising and media manager for the Asia Pacific Trading Company, and a free-lance columnist for several periodicals.

Linh made her writing debut with a short story entitled Người hai mặt (Two-faced Person) published in Hoa học trò newspaper in 1999.

Linh has published two short story anthologies, First Layer, and Waltz from Hell both in 2007. She is currently working on a thriller novel, which is expected to be titled The Farm, and published next year.

Linh was awarded third prize in the Military Literature and Art Magazine competition in 2006 for her two short stories, My Mischievous Students and Cocktail, the latter is featured in this edition of Outlook.

Cocktail, written in 2006, dwells on the tragic fates of young people in search of happiness and values in modern society. They are sometimes puzzled over the nature of such core values as sincerity, beauty and goodness. In their search, Linh’s protagonists are pushed against the wall, left with no choice, but to pursue extremes, but finding that they often have to pay back what they owe to society. Linh says she believe good and evil exist in each person, and results in a constant inner struggle, a kind of moral ‘cocktail’ of the good and the bad.