Author Phuc Tran

In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Phuc Tran and his family immigrated to America. By sheer chance, they land in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a small town where the Trans struggle to assimilate into their new life. In this coming-of-age memoir told through the themes of great books such as The Metamorphosis, The Scarlett Letter, The Iliad and more, against the hair spray-and-synthesizer backdrop of the ‘80s. Tran navigates immigration, isolation, teenage rebellion, assimilation, and the expectations of his parents – and finds solace and kinship in classic literature and punk rock. Sigh, Gone is the Maine Humanities Council’s Read ME nonfiction pick for 2022.

Phuc Tran has been a high school Latin teacher for more than twenty years while also simultaneously establishing himself as a highly sought-after tattooer in the Northeast. Tran graduated Bard College in 1995 with a BA in Classics and received the Callanan Classics Prize. He taught Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit in New York at the Collegiate School and was an instructor at Brooklyn College’s Summer Latin Institute. Most recently, he taught Latin, Greek, and German at the Waynflete School in Portland, Maine. His 2012 TEDx talk “Grammar, Identity, and the Dark Side of the Subjunctive” was featured on NPR’s Ted Radio Hour. He has also been an occasional guest on Maine Public Radio, discussing grammar; the Classics; and Strunk and White’s legacy. He currently tattoos at and owns Tsunami Tattoo in Portland, Maine, where he lives with his family.

This event will take place in the library’s Community Room, with limited seating. For more information or for Zoom links to watch from home, please email elewis@rocklandmaine.gov.