This Saturday, 22 September is the Milton Keynes Literary Festival and I’m very much looking forward to this event. Join me for a Book Club talk about White Chrysanthemum. We’ll discuss the book, ‘comfort women’, haenyeo divers, Hana and Emi, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have about writing, publishing, and …
Remembering the Marikana massacre of mine workers in South Africa in 2012. By artist Haroon Gunn-Salie, Senzenina (2018), the surrendering bodies have no heads and no hands, as though their minds and their physical agency are removed by the state. Primeval and shocking, it is worth a visit.
A great oak tree on Hampstead Heath in full bloom. Shelter for hundreds of organisms, from the ivy encircling its grooved trunk to the gray squirrels running along its crooked branches and magpies nesting in its yawning canopy, it is a haven for life and a feast for the eyes. It can live for centuries, …
How to love Love with your whole heart— Your mind Your body And soul. It sounds cliche But try it. It’s the hardest fucking thing you will ever do. Akin to peeling back your skin Revealing your veins and saying Look This is me Naked I am yours The pulsing of your blood From the …
The UK 🇬🇧 paperback for White Chrysanthemum is out today! This year has been an amazing journey and I’m extremely thankful to everyone who made this book happen. Thank you for believing in this novel, for falling in love with Hana and Emi, and for sharing the story of the Korean ‘comfort women’ with the …
I’m here on this cold, drizzly day anticipating this wonderful event tonight with Wu Ming-Yi and Lee Randall. When I was a student writing my novel, I had no idea of the life that awaited me. I’m so pleased to be here, honored to be among so many brilliant writers, and humbled by this beautiful …
I spent the day immersed in Lee Bul’s surreal world of futuristic and sometimes brutal art on exhibit at the Hayward Gallery London. She creates obscene beauty and entire worlds with everyday materials. My favourite display was her porcelain sculptures of robot parts, which fuses old Korea’s traditional celadon pottery with steampunk fiction. They could …
