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Nicole Chung

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.nicolechung.net

Twitter

nicolesjchung

Member Since

June 2016

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Nicole Chung is the author of A Living Remedy (April 4, 2023) and the national bestseller All You Can Ever Know (2018). Named a Best Book of the Year by over twenty outlets, including NPR, The Washington Post, Time, and Library Journal, All You Can Ever Know was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and NAIBA Book of the Year, a semifinalist for the PEN Open Book Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and an Indies Choice Honor Book. Nicole is currently a contributing writer at The Atlantic, and her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Time, The Guardian, Slate, and Vulture. Find her on Twitter, Mastodon, and Post at @nicolesjchung.

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What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Nicole Chung Finding community. I love that moment when you share your story and you aren't alone anymore. It's been so fun to hear from, meet, and talk with reade…moreFinding community. I love that moment when you share your story and you aren't alone anymore. It's been so fun to hear from, meet, and talk with readers!(less)

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You’ve written elsewhere about your transracial adoption, but at what point did you realize you wanted to write a book about it?

Nicole Chung This answer changes every time—which I guess is its own answer, in a way: I clearly do not remember a particular day or moment or month when I made th…moreThis answer changes every time—which I guess is its own answer, in a way: I clearly do not remember a particular day or moment or month when I made the decision. I had written a few essays about adoption, and gotten a lot of interesting feedback and questions from readers, many of whom told me they hadn't read a transracial adoptee's perspective on adoption before. It surprised me because I had come across these narratives, but it's true that adoptee perspectives hadn't—maybe still haven't—gone "mainstream" in the way they really should.

Eventually it became clear that I couldn't do justice to the issue, to the story, to every person involved, to every complication and nuance, writing 1000- and 2000-word essays here and there. A book would allow me to lay everything out, tell the full story, but I also hoped it would have a kind of impact on the culture—maybe help start some conversations, help keep them going—that a short-form piece wouldn't or couldn't. Also, from a purely selfish standpoint: I felt as though this book would be there, tapping me on the shoulder, until I tried to write it. It was almost as if I had to try to make some kind of place for myself in a literary landscape where people like me and experiences like mine were and are scarce. Which is maybe a burden I should not have felt, and not every writer of color or adoptee of color would or should feel that way, but I did.(less)

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Nicole Chung’s books

Average rating: 3.88 · 24,913 ratings · 3,162 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	All You Can Ever Know 3.85 avg rating — 21,991 ratings — published 2018 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America by Samhita Mukhopadhyay (Editor), Kate Harding (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Carina Chocano (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 4.11 avg rating — 1,896 ratings — published 2017 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home by Nicole Chung (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Mensah Demary (Editor) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 912 ratings — published 2020 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Body Language: Writers on Identity, Physicality, and Making Space for Ourselves by Nicole Chung (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Matt Ortile (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.08 avg rating — 144 ratings — published 2022 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Living Remedy: A Memoir 4.53 avg rating — 85 ratings — expected publication 2023 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology by Shannon Gibney, Nicole Chung (Goodreads Author), Mariama Lockington it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Adoptee to Adoptee by Shannon Gibney (Editor), Nicole Chung (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Mariama Lockington 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2023	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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The Water Dancer

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Nov 21, 2019 07:53AM

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Becoming

by Michelle Obama (Goodreads Author)

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Hole in the Middle

by Kendra Fortmeyer (Goodreads Author)

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Jul 18, 2018 06:37PM

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Nicole’s Recent Updates

Nicole is now friends with Roxanne
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Nicole rated a book it was amazing Memorial by Bryan Washington	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 14, 2022 12:50PM · 4 likes · like

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Quotes by Nicole Chung (?)

“To be a hero, I thought, you had to be beautiful and adored. To be beautiful and adored, you had to be white. That there were millions of Asian girls like me out there in the world, starring in their own dramas large and small, had not yet occurred to me, as I had neither lived nor seen it.”
― Nicole Chung, All You Can Ever Know

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“As my thoughts reached out to them, all at once I could envision hundreds of gossamer-thin threads of history and love, curiosity and memory, built up slowly across the time and space between us—a web of connections too delicate to be seen or touched, too strong to be completely severed.”
― Nicole Chung, All You Can Ever Know

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“so when people asked me about my family, my features, the fate I’d been dealt, maybe it isn’t surprising how I answered — first in a childish, cheerful chirrup, later in the lecturing tone of one obliged to educate. I arrive to be calm and direct, never giving anything away in my voice, never changing the details. Offering the story I’d learned so early was, I thought, one way to gain acceptance. It was both the excuse for how I looked, and a way of asking pardon for it.”
― Nicole Chung, All You Can Ever Know

tags: adoption, belonging, crossracial, transracial, transracial-adoption

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Polls

What should our April group read be? (Debut works)

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

14 votes 29.2%

She Would Be King by Wayetu Moore

10 votes 20.8%

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

8 votes 16.7%

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

5 votes 10.4%

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

4 votes 8.3%

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson

4 votes 8.3%

White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht

2 votes 4.2%

The Dry by Jane Harper

1 vote 2.1%

48 total votes

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The Seasonal Read...: Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD	4153	358	Nov 30, 2018 09:27PM
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The Seasonal Read...: Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD	3876	339	Feb 28, 2019 09:00PM
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2023 Reading Chal...: Q1 - Looking Back at the Best	148	522	Apr 15, 2019 09:02AM
The Seasonal Read...: * Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD	3745	315	May 31, 2019 09:00PM
2023 Reading Chal...: ⭐⭐Diane's 2019 Reading Challenge Room ⭐⭐	44	165	Jun 08, 2019 05:43AM

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Nicole Chung’s Followers (797)

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Nicole Chung

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Nicole Chung’s Followers (797)

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Nicole Chung

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Nicole is Currently Reading

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