Paul Van Dyke holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University. His collection of short essays A Thousand Sunsets is available through Red Bird Chapbooks. His fiction and nonfiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Water~Stone Review, Upstreet Magazine, Hippocampus, O-Dark-Thirty, and Proud To Be. He is an Army Veteran of the Iraq War and a Purple Heart recipient. He turned to creative writing as a facet of his therapy plan after the war.

He has been a part of the Twin Cities writing community for more than a decade, volunteering and working for various nonprofits, participating in panels and discussions, and reading his work at community events.

Drawing from his experiences in becoming a writer after his military service, and wanting to pay forward the blessing that his mentors had given him, he set out to pursue his passion to teach creative writing to other Veterans. In 2023, he taught a class for first responders, military Veterans, and their families called Unseen Bonds and after seeing the vulnerability, passion for craft, and sense of community in this class, he started Veterans Telling Stories.