Acts of Love: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Zauner’s memoir is not a performance, but an act of love, including all the dirty little bits that come with it.
...more
Posts Tagged: korean
Writing Toward Feeling: Talking with Jean Kyoung Frazier
Jean Kyoung Frazier discusses her debut novel, PIZZA GIRL.
...more
History as a Bridge to Belonging: A Conversation with Caroline Kim
Caroline Kim discusses her debut collection, THE PRINCE OF MOURNFUL THOUGHTS AND OTHER STORIES.
...more
On Hauntings and Huntings: Talking with Jihyun Yun
Jihyun Yun discusses her debut poetry collection, SOME ARE ALWAYS HUNGRY.
...more
Writing What Bothers: A Conversation with Frances Cha
Frances Cha discusses her debut novel, IF I HAD YOUR FACE.
...more
The Poem Must Forgive: E. J. Koh’s The Magical Language of Others
Empathy and forgiveness must begin with understanding.
...more
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Mary-Kim Arnold
Mary-Kim Arnold discusses her new poetry collection, THE FISH & THE DOVE.
...more
Seaweed Soup (Miyuk Gook
미역국)
This is my mother’s soup. This is what I aim for.
...more
Living to Survive: Bodega by Su Hwang
Bodega is one of the most experimental and ambitious projects that I have encountered.
...more
A Space for Magnanimity: Talking with E. J. Koh
E. J. Koh discusses her debut memoir, THE MAGICAL LANGUAGE OF OTHERS.
...more
How I Love Her: On Depression and Suicidal Ideation
Maybe the worst part about living with this is that it doesn’t leave me.
...more
My Mother’s Tongue
When I spoke Korean, I unearthed a hidden thread that bound us together.
...more
Free Indirect Suicide: An Unfinished Fugue in H Minor
I want a PhD in how to want, effortlessly, to be alive.
...more
Re-Thinking Adoption: A Conversation with Nicole Chung
Nicole Chung discusses her debut memoir, ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW.
...more
A Façade of a Woman: R.O. Kwon’s The Incendiaries
It is incredible to crack open an American novel and wince upon seeing parts of yourself reflected back so strikingly.
...more
Living in the Fulcrum: A Conversation with Mary H.K. Choi
Mary H.K. Choi discusses her debut YA novel, Emergency Contact, her versatile writing career, and writing diverse Korean-American characters.
...more
The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Mary-Kim Arnold
Mary-Kim Arnold discusses her debut book, Litany for the Long Moment, exploring adoption through a feminist lens, and dancing on the line between genres.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Rebecca
Grace shook her head, surprised by both her reluctance to speak and her impulse to lie. She had seen many photos of Rebecca.
...more
Digging for Characters: A Conversation with Sonya Chung
Sonya Chung discusses her latest novel The Loved Ones, the mental space required to wander around fictional worlds, and looking back at her childhood.
...more
Falling into Fear
I knew that just as the country was reverting, so was I. Every face now seemed a potential enemy and these were feelings I had not felt in almost twenty years.
...more
The Rumpus Review of Seoul Searching
Seeing is a critical part of normalizing, and though it seems like a rudimentary expectation, it’s important for American audiences to see Korean-Americans simply living their lives.
...more
The Name Before My Name
There are times when I must uncork the period, for Isabel only chases my given name.
...moreHow Yellow Is Yellow Enough?
At the Paris Review, Monica Youn discusses her latest “Twinkie” poem, “Goldacre,” written after last year’s Best American Poetry controversy: It was around the same time that I first heard the insult “Twinkie”—yellow on the outside, white on the inside—a label I brooded over. New acquaintances seemed surprised, judgmental, to learn that I couldn’t speak Korean, had […]
...more
Go Boldly, Dear Dreamer
And while I understand the secrecy surrounding miscarriage—it is hard to quantify what’s been lost—because people don’t talk about it, I am lonely.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Minsoo Kang
Writer and historian Minsoo Kang talks about his new translation of The Story of Hong Gildong, a touchstone novel of Korea written in the 19th century.
...more
Deep Conditioning with Wilson Phillips
“Don’t become a professor,” he said. “I’d rather you become a garbage man. They get paid more and have better benefits.”
...more
Shelter by Jung Yun
Kim Fu reviews Shelter by Jung Yun today in Rumpus Books.
...moreHuman Nature
Han Kang, Korean author of the recently translated The Vegetarian, takes on humanity “from the sublime to the brutal.” In an in-depth interview at The White Review, she explores the “(im)possibility of innocence,” and the “gestures of refusal,” that run through her books.
...moreLanguage, Love, and Loss
Over at The Toast, Nicole Chung has written a deeply personal and beautiful essay about coming to terms with her adoption, embracing her Korean heritage, and learning her mother tongue alongside her daughter: When I watch my daughter writing in Korean, when we talk about our family history, when she seems sure about who she […]
...more
The Weight of the Future, the Emptiness of the Past
I am reminded of how we know something is there, sometimes, by its absence, how dark matter is said to exist because of so much missing mass.
...more