Tessa Yang Returns to SLU

Author Tessa Yang ’25 captivated her audience Oct. 26 with her emotional yet absurd stories and down-to-earth personality. Being a graduate of St. Lawrence University, she proved to aspiring student writers that becoming a successful author is possible after college.    

Yang admitted that writing was a private pastime of hers, so getting used to others reading her writings in college was hard to get used to. “It was a shift for me, but it was one that ended up empowering me and giving me access to this whole different side of writing,” she said. 

As a former student here, it was a surreal experience for Yang to come back to St. Lawrence as a visiting writer. “I loved coming to the writing series as a student. Every time I was here, I would look at the person behind the podium and think, ‘How can I be you’?” expressed Yang.  

Yang read two stories, one titled “The Line,” which was featured in her debut short fiction story novel “The Runaway Restaurant,” which was published in 2022. As a self-proclaimed shark enthusiast, Yang’s other story was about sharks starting the apocalypse. “Last year, it occurred to me that I had never written a piece of shark fiction before, so I had set out to fix that mistake,” she said. 

Her stories are a unique blend of reliability and predictability, with touches of comedy woven through. “Seeing she was able to improve her writing skills in the place I am in right now is really inspiring,” said Sarah Ricker ’23 after attending Yang’s reading.  

Yang’s reading was in the Sykes common room last Thursday at 8:30 p.m. Yang is a  professor at Hartwick College and is currently working on her second book.