Ask the Author: Juhea Kim
Answered Questions (3)
Juhea Kim
Dear Mariah,
Thank you for waiting for my next work! It's funny you should ask that just now, because last night I wrote up to 91k words of my next novel that I originally planned on being just 72k words. It seems that I don't know how to write a short one! This one may come around 100k words (Beasts was even longer). I have said in interviews that Beasts was inspired by a symphony. This one was inspired by a concerto, and I'm at a point where I'm seeing that really take shape, which is exciting for me. It's a book about relationships—between friends, lovers, family, and most of all between art and artist. I am really grateful to have readers who are waiting—it gives me motivation.
Thank you for waiting for my next work! It's funny you should ask that just now, because last night I wrote up to 91k words of my next novel that I originally planned on being just 72k words. It seems that I don't know how to write a short one! This one may come around 100k words (Beasts was even longer). I have said in interviews that Beasts was inspired by a symphony. This one was inspired by a concerto, and I'm at a point where I'm seeing that really take shape, which is exciting for me. It's a book about relationships—between friends, lovers, family, and most of all between art and artist. I am really grateful to have readers who are waiting—it gives me motivation.
Juhea Kim
Aww, thank you Applekern for calling my prose "descriptive and free-flowing"! I rather stumbled into writing; I studied art history in college and thought that I would like to work for a museum. But somehow I ended up as an editorial assistant at a New York publisher, where I was naturally exposed to a lot of books. After I quit my job, there was a time when I felt I needed to give myself permission to write—and I wrote a short story over one weekend, which became my literary debut in Granta. There's a lot more drama to this, which I frequently explain in interviews and virtual bookstore events—there is one this evening (December 14) through Chicago's Madison Street Books, with Nicole Chung! You can still register for it at juheakim.com/events. As for my writing style, I fully attribute that to my art history training, actually. (So it was not only useful, but essential for me!) I learned to describe everything precisely so I can guide the reader through what I *see*. I'm definitely a visual writer, which is probably why many people have called my writing "cinematic." It's less important to me to try to find a clever new way to describe something that no one's ever thought of before—I care more for precision, getting as close to the truth as possible. Thank you!
Juhea Kim
If it's daytime, definitely by taking a walk outside, listening to the birds, and noticing the trees and the flowers. If you see a person walking around Portland smelling all the flowers, that's me! If it's nighttime, a glass of cocktail is like the elixir of new ideas.
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Feb 22, 2023 04:53PM · flag
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