She was the first in her family to go to college and attended the University of California, Irvine, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
[1] In 2015, Trahan graduated from McNeese State University with an MA in English and MFA in Creative Writing.
[2] There, she taught classes in fiction, nonfiction, creative expression, and service learning, as well as open workshops for its Writer's Studio program.
[9][10] At the 2024 AWP conference in Kansas City, Missouri, Trahan was on a Asian Pacific Islander American writers panel with Gina Chung, Jean Kyoung Frazier, Mark Galarrita, and Gene Kwak.
[11] An instructor at Stanford University, Trahan is based in Palo Alto, California where she lives with her spouse, daughter, and two dogs.