Fiction and Humor Writer, Former Diplomat
An interview with Tom Navratil
By Norah Vawter
Tom Navratil describes himself on LinkedIn as a “fiction and humor writer; former diplomat,” which is my favorite LinkedIn tagline. It’s also entirely accurate. Navratil–whose debut novel Dog’s Breakfast (Willow River Press) was published in January–grew up in Illinois and Wisconsin, the oldest of five children. After earning his B.A. in economics and philosophy at Haverford College, he joined the U.S. Department of State as a foreign service officer. He completed tours of duty in embassies in Santo Domingo, Tokyo (twice), Moscow, and Skopje, as well as a short stint in Havana. Along the way he learned Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and Macedonian. Navratil has said he took great pride in representing our country as a diplomat.
Since leaving government work in 2013, Navratil has devoted much of his time to fiction writing. For several years we were part of a long-running writing workshop group, so I’ve had the pleasure of reading early drafts of several Tom Navratil novels. I’ve been surprised and impressed at the depth and variety of his work, ranging from emotionally resonant literary fiction to humor. This novel, which could alternately be described as satire or farce, takes readers into a backwater U.S. embassy in the fictional country of Vodania, where we follow the adventures and misadventures of Andy Pulano, the second-in-command at the embassy, who has become fed up with being treated with less respect than the ambassador's prized pet, and Tara Zadani, a newly arrived junior officer. Schemes, crises, machinations, and hilarity ensue.
Tom Navratil was kind enough to chat with me about his new book, the State Department, and many things in between.
When did you start writing, and what motivated you?
As a teenager, I dreamed of becoming a novelist, and that dream never faded. I had always loved reading, and the stories I absorbed inspired me to join the party. During my foreign service years, I wrote short stories, humor articles, a novella, a screenplay. Amidst all the responsibilities of work and parenthood, the spark glowed. Creating fiction is my primary focus now. And after decades of factual and judicious State Department writing, it feels like a return to my first love, and a liberation.
How did your career in the State Department shape your creative writing?
Reporting and analysis, decision memos, press guidance, Congressional testimony, speeches, performance evaluations–I did tons of writing for the State Department. Written work needed to be accurate, persuasive, and concise. And produced quickly. More profoundly, the conflicts, the crises, the glimpses of history in the making, in other countries, in foreign languages, all provided a wealth of deeply affecting experiences. Unsurprisingly, then, storytelling is a hallmark of diplomatic culture.
I will always feel proud to have served as an American diplomat, but at a certain point, it became time to go. I had family and professional reasons to walk away, as well as an itch for change, for a new chapter. When I left, I had been a foreign service officer well over half my life. I took a deep breath, and the first draft of Dog’s Breakfast gushed out.
Author Tom Navratil
This is a fun, outlandish, dare I say farcical novel, but it also draws on your professional experience. What is true-to-life, and what is fiction?
Dog’s Breakfast is a completely made-up story, including the country where it takes place. But the milieu, including the hierarchies and various functions of an embassy, the interactions between Washington and the field, the workings of the bureaucracy, are all grounded in my experiences and observations.
I know you also write more serious fiction. What led you to write this as satire? (And do you define this as a satire?)
A therapist might say I had unresolved issues with the State Department. I would say I found a lot of that world to be funny. Diplomacy is serious business, yet replete with absurdity. And my absurdity detector is always on high alert. I call Dog’s Breakfast a comedy of international intrigue, which I hope is broadly appealing, but in my heart I hold to my original genre description: diplomatic thriller farce.
You’ve said, “Dog’s Breakfast sets its sights on power-hungry careerists, bloated military budgets, and feckless politicians in satirizing the U.S. government’s propensity for international overreach.” Can you elaborate?
There is a silly but surprisingly deep-rooted belief, inside and outside of government, that whoever sits in the White House at any given time deserves credit for everything that goes right in the world, and blame for everything that goes wrong. The ridiculous premise is U.S. omnipotence. We are powerful, we are necessary for progress in so many areas, but we can’t control everything. Or, arguably, anything. We do have great influence, which we have over the years used for good and for ill. So when I see people fooling themselves that we run the world, my itch for satire flares up.
It’s hard to talk about the U.S. government right now without talking about the Trump administration’s extreme cuts and efforts to dismantle federal agencies. Do you have thoughts about current events or how your book relates to politics and/or real-life issues?
The term “dog’s breakfast” is slang for a complete mess, a disorderly situation, with a connotation of repugnance. It feels apt that my novel of that title got published on Day 1 of the current administration, which appears to be doing all it can to make a dog’s breakfast out of our government, our society, and the whole global community. The chaos I concocted in my story is on a much smaller scale, but vastly more amusing. The reaction that I hope both my book and real-world events will produce is: be alert to the connivings of the power-mad, and defend your rights and values.
Do you have a favorite D.C. area author?
The Washington metropolitan area has a wealth of excellent writers, and over the years I have enjoyed many of their books. Recent treats include Back After This, a romance set in D.C., by Linda Holmes, and The Peacock and the Sparrow, a spy novel by former CIA officer I.S. Berry, as well as the poetry of Indran Amirthanayagam, a foreign service colleague. Susan Coll is another favorite, and I look forward to what she publishes next.
What are you reading, watching, and/or listening to now?
Recent reads include The Brothers Karamazov, Liberation Day (a story collection by George Saunders), and We Solve Murders, Richard Osman’s latest. I gravitate toward fiction, and am open to a wide swath of the banquet. I subscribe to the New Yorker, and consume much of each issue. Lately, seeking shelter from the sh!tstorm, I have cut back on daily journalism. I often listen to the world music channel on Radio FIP, and watch almost nothing except British comedy shows and soccer matches with my older son.
Anything you’d like to add?
Betwixt and between writing novels, I have been producing humor articles at a decent clip, for publications including Points in Case, Weekly Humorist, Slackjaw, and various others on the platform Medium. Earlier this year I was anointed as an associate editor at one of them, called MuddyUm. Novels are deeply satisfying, but there is a long, uncertain journey between writing one and getting it in front of readers. Short humor pieces, with their immediacy and playfulness, let me connect with an audience and feel like I’m contributing something.
You can buy a copy of Dog’s Breakfast directly from the small publisher or from Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores.
Read an interview with the author on Washington Independent Review of Books. And learn more at tomnavratil.com.
Tom Navratil joined the Foreign Service after graduating from Haverford College and served in American embassies around the world. His writing has appeared in Points in Case, Weekly Humorist, Slackjaw, Jane Austen’s Wastebasket, and other humor publications. His debut novel Dog’s Breakfast was published by Willow River Press in January 2025.
Norah Vawter is co-founder and editor of Washington Unbound. Follow her on Instagram and Threads @norahvawter and check out her Substack, Survival by Words here.
