Welcome
I’m so glad you’ve found my website. Here you’ll find both my fiction and non-fiction work, including my LA Times-bestselling novel SWIM (2019), about a meth addict having to plan his mother’s funeral while trying to stay sober, and Love Your Asian Body (2022), an oral history about the AIDS movement in the Asian American community, which won the 2023 Association of Asian American Studies (AAAS) Book Award in History. Daddy Issues, my short story collection and the winner of Barbara DiBernard Prize in Fiction, will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in September 2025!
People think writing is a solitary endeavor. There surely are solitary moments, but even before the publication of my first book, I’ve been building a community of fellow writers, readers, and activists. I continue to draw wisdom and strength from them.
I invite you to join this community! Sign up for my mailing list here.
Stay strong,
Eric
MY BOOKS
Daddy issues: Stories
forthcoming September 2025
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Winner of the Barbara DiBernard Prize in Fiction
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Upcoming Readings:
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Sat., Sept 20, 2 p.m. Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
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Sun., Sept 21, 4 p.m. KUBO LB, Long Beach, CA
in the press
Unstinting and deep, Daddy Issues roils the mirror surfaces of our days with cutting candor and intense, unexpected compassion. Eric Wat’s characters body forth revelatory insight as they emerge from marginalization into hard fought light.
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-- Sesshu Foster, author of Atomik Aztex
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In Daddy Issues, Wat has written a collection of short stories as profound as they are humorous. In doing so, he deftly challenges conventions while illuminating the resilience of the human spirit. Wat’s intricate storytelling and vivid prose offers us an unvarnished examination of love, loss, longing, and the ties that bind us to one another. An absolutely essential addition to contemporary literature.
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-- Alex Espinoza, author of The Sons of El Rey
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The Making of a Gay Asian Community is a significant and trailblazing work. It demonstrates effectively how both external and internal contradictions can fuel the formation of group identity.
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-- Dr. Amy Sueyoshi, San Francisco State University, Journal History of Sexuality
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SWIM marks the debut of a brilliant storyteller. This is San Gabriel Valley's Bright Lights, Big City--an exploration of a man grappling with drug addiction, relationships and family drama in the heart of the Chinese American community in Southern California. Never tragic or melodramatic, the novel seamlessly pulls us through Carson Chow's life, clearly and precisely exposing us to truths about being human.
-- Naomi Hirahara, Edgar Award-winning author of the Mas Arai mysteries
Raw, vulnerable, and heartfelt, Wat’s debut novel opens a window into the dysfunctions of a diasporic Asian American family living in the sprawling space of Los Angeles through the eyes of its queer son.
-- Dr. Stewart Chang, University of Nevada, Las Vegas