By Colton Cook, Contributing Writer
On Tuesday, Sept. 28th, writer Eric Tran came to Susquehanna University to read some of his poems to the students and faculty. He first held a Q&A at 4:15pm, then had a reading of his works at 7pm. Both events were held in Isaac’s Auditorium in Seibert Hall.
Tran is a graduate of the University of North Carolina of Medicine and also the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He is known for his debut poetry collection titled, “The Gutter Spread Guide to Prayer”, containing 44 poems. This collection won the Autumn House Rising Writer Award in 2019 and was featured in both the Rumpus Book Club and the Asian American Journalists Association (New York)’s book club. His poems have also appeared in many places, such as the Iowa Review, the Missouri Review Poem of the Week, and Pleiades. Tran is known specifically for his Asian American and Queer perspective of the world, which is often reflected in his poems. When he isn’t writing, Eric works as a resident physician in North Carolina.
Tran’s first book focuses heavily on mental health, and during the reading he apologized for it being ‘sad.’ He also likes to make references to comic books (or to be more specific, Marvel and DC comics) and other pop culture. Tran says he gets most of his inspiration from the observations he makes and his past experiences. When it comes to reading his work, he has said that he would prefer it to be spoken aloud, not just read on the page. The best advice he could give when he was asked about the best way to embrace writing was to stop writing for product or publication; the best work comes from creating for yourself. Eric Tran’s next book, called “Mouth, Sugar, and Smoke” will be released in the Spring of 2022.
