Former Susquehanna University Student Returns, Published and Ready to Share Her Experience
By Jasmine Durst
Jessica Nirvana Ram, a Susquehanna 2019 graduate, is an Indo-Guyanese poet. She is the author of the poetry collection “Earthly Gods” (Variant Literature, 2024). Ram gave a public reading from her debut book of poetry “Earthly Gods” at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, in the Lore Degenstein Art Gallery at Susquehanna University. She also taught an SU Slam Master Class in Fisher Hall at 7 p.m.
Ram’s first poem was titled “I Am Not Fit to Raise Daughters”. She had read this poem through 16 tours and had it memorized by the eleventh. She also read “On Good Tongues,” “You’ve Gone Pink,” “Earthly Gods,” and three other poems. Ram then introduced three manuscripts. Manuscript one – “Earthly Gods” – is published, and manuscript two – “The Ethics of Care” – is complete and being processed for publishing. Manuscript three is in the works. She gave a sneak peek by reading five poems from the others. One title is named “I Moved On but He Lives in the Crevasses”. This poem is revealed to be an A-Z poem; the first letter of the lines goes in alphabetical order – only known if physically reading the poem.
The following quote was part of Jessica Ram’s introduction to her works:
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference. Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. To be in the window and watch people being sent to concentration camps or being attacked in the street and do nothing, that’s being dead,” Elie Wiesel said to the US News & World Report (October 27, 1986).
In college, Dr. Catherine Dent said that Jessica Ram’s works revealed her survival and resilience to trauma. She won the Service Award for Creative Writing and English and the Spring Chapbook Prize. Ram had worked on campus as a resident assistant (RA), teacher’s assistant (TA), and manager for the Lore Degenstein Art Gallery – the same gallery she used for her Creative Writing Alumni Reading.