See you soon Winnipeg

"Emerging literary translators often come up and tell me how much they want to be like me. They mean well, and more power to them, but I do find myself thinking: Are you sure about that?" I wrote an article about burnout for KLN:

See you at Nooroongji tomorrow! Free tickets are all gone but if you pre-order a book from the shop, you can reserve a spot! www.eventbrite.ca/e/book-launc...

Some details from a Hyundai worker who was detained: - Forced to sign arrest warrants - Cells for 72 people with 4 toilets and 2 urinals, all exposed - Moldy bunk beds - Given spoiled water - Put in prison uniforms No wonder the Korean government is launching a human rights abuse investigation

There's success. And then there's 'you get on your hometown Korean community's newspaper' level of success

If you're in Ottawa, hope to see you tomorrow at Perfect Books at 7 PM!

It’s been a busy week of 📚 events — with @jinwoo-park.com and Emily Weedon reading at @cityandcitybooks.bsky.social and the Toronto launch of Oxford Soju Club at Queen Books! We hope everyone enjoyed the readings, the good company, and returned home with a heavier book bag and new chapters to read.

I’m so pumped to participate on this @bkbookfest.bsky.social panel this Sunday alongside fellow debut novelists @jinwoo-park.com, Aurora Stewart de Peña, and Ella Alexander. Moderated by Adam Vitcavage of @debutiful.bsky.social.

If you're in Toronto, join me and June Hur tonight!

Is there any better feeling than realizing that you've got the whole row to yourself on the plane?

So many Koreans including my own parents shocked about the Hyundai plant raid and I'm over here going 'ah you've come to your senses finally.' Model minority be damned.

Still feeling surreal that I'm signing books.

There’s a Korean proverb: 벼는 익을수록 고개를 숙인다. “The fuller the rice, the lower it bows.” It means the wiser and more accomplished you are, the more humble you should be. That true greatness is never made alone, like how I owe many for my debut novel. So here's to staying humble.

It's pub day in Canada for Oxford Soju Club. It all began in 2018 as an absurdly cliched action novel that also became my self-therapy. After 5 rewrites, edits, and a TikTok DM from my now-editor, it’s here. Nervous, excited, ready to share my heart. I hope you enjoy meeting Jihoon, Yunah & Yohan.

Happy Pub Day to @jinwoo-park.com's Oxford Soju Club! "Canadian Korean Jinwoo Park's debut novel, Oxford Soju Club, is an extraordinarily multilayered examination of identity and loyalty, deftly presented as an addicting spy thriller." — Shelf Awareness Purchase now: buff.ly/hRxmSms

In conventional English spy fiction the Brits are the protagonists and the rest of the world is the game board. @jinwoo-park.com’s cool, compelling, character-focused novel Oxford Soju Club neatly inverts this, with Korean spies playing cat and mouse in an oblivious UK.

My parents just called me to tell me that they finished reading my novel and said that they loved it and are proud of the work I've done, and as an Asian immigrant child, the fact that I got them to say this after having fought for years over my writing career feels like a massive achievement.

In three days I become a published author and that still feels crazy to me.

Montreal friends, my book launch is now in less than two weeks I'm having my first launch event right here in Montreal, on September 3rd, 7 PM, at Librairie Bertrand. If you pre-ordered, thank you, please bring it over so I can sign it. Hope to see you there. www.eventbrite.com/e/fall-myste...

Hot take, there's no such thing as an illegal strike. On the other hand, corporate bonuses should be illegal.

On Saturday, August 16, hundreds of Latinx punks gathered at MacArthur Park for an evening of anti-authoritarian cumbia and hardcore ska punk as one of the venue’s 10 free summer concerts. By @jwhendricks.bsky.social Full story: lataco.com/ska-punk-mac...

I got an Air Canada flight in a month to attend a book launch event. I don't care if it gets cancelled with no refund. What I want more is fair pay for the workers. If anyone is fined or goes to jail because of section 107, the Liberals are never getting a single vote from me. Solidarity. Or gtfo.

If you're in Montreal, please come to Librairie Bertrand on September 3rd to celebrate my book launch! globalnews.ca/video/113391...

In light of recent events. I’m starting to now reassess just how much more amazing it was, when Yoon Sukyeol back in December tried to dissolve the South Korean national assembly with martial law, thousands of ordinary citizens came out and faced off against fully armed special operations soldiers.

One of the reasons why you should read Shoko’s Smile by Choi Eun-young, translated by Sung Ryu, is that it did something very pioneering in Korean literature, which is that it dared to paint Koreans as perpetrators, when Koreans have tended to naturally frame ourselves as victims in literature.

"What a great read." - @antonhur.com Seriously, his words. Not mine. So if that convinces you to get my book Oxford Soju Club, it's now available for pre-order.

I feel like Duolingo has no idea how persuasion works. "Come back or else" Deleted. Don't tell me what to do. Stupid bird.

Check out the newest review of @jinwoo-park.com's Oxford Soju Club from Shelf Awareness: buff.ly/Wbi9pwg #OxfordSojuClub #spynovels #KoreanLit #CanLit

I saw a video where Ocean Vuong talked about how he observes a prevalence of cringe culture from his students, an increased tendency of becoming more self-conscious of trying. And how that paralyzes them from pursuing and practicing their craft. Now, if that's the case, you should just stop.

“Small children from poor or middle-class families who watch ‘Sesame Street’ do better on cognitive tests and in first grade than children who do not watch it,” Renata Adler wrote, in 1972.

I love reading books by translators and Oxford Soju Club by @jinwoo-park.com was another win for me! I adore novels written in multiple pov that slip in and out of the past. The combination of blurred and stark lines is just so delightful. What a beautiful little book. #AmReading #BookReview

Since the spring, federal agents have been patrolling government buildings in New York City, waiting to arrest migrants as soon as they step out of a courtroom, regardless of the status of their case.

Read the rest of James Ivison's review at the following link: mtlreviewofbooks.ca/reviews/oxfo... @jinwoo-park.com

It's great that everyone has headphones on at the gym because it means no one (probably) heard me rip a fart on my last squat.

우리는 하나

Got my author copies. Now THIS is a surreal experience.

Last day of Bookshop's anti-prime (love it) sale: bookshop.org/p/books/oxfo... Also day to take advantage of that Barnes & Noble Pre-Order Sale: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/oxford-soj...

It's kind of crazy that I used read the Montreal Review of Books for book recs and now my debut novel's review is on there. mtlreviewofbooks.ca/reviews/oxfo...

Barnes & Noble is having another pre-order sale until July 11th and what a coincidence that my debut novel Oxford Soju Club is available for pre-order (nudge nudge) Coming out in the US on September 30th. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/oxford-soj...

Someone said on NetGalley that my book is: "Min Jin Lee's Pachinko meets Viet Than Nguyen's The Sympathizer." And I'm just, absolutely floored.

It's 2025 and K-pop is still dealing with plenty of racism

Protect Zohran at all costs

Had the most memorable weekend on my first ever moderating gig with MOTIVE. Thank you so much Seo Mi-ae, Jeong You-jeong, and Adnan Khan for the wonderful conversations. Thank you to TIFA for this chance to moderate for the fest. And thank you to all of those who came out to the panels.

A stranger on the web told me I look like Kazuo Ishiguro and I'm afraid it has led to my ego being dangerously inflated.

From my perspective, the AI debate in writing is a very simple one. It’s all about whether you respect the process or not. Writers are writers because they write. Because they value and enjoy the process of writing. Because for writers it’s not just about the end product.

Please NYC, show us that there's still hope

Other than that they're nutjobs for doing this, what is the logic here?

"Oxford Soju Club is an intelligent, riveting, and poignant exploration, asking ‘what makes you who you are?’ and ‘do you determine your own identity?’ It’s a novel full of yearning, like the eponymous drink—but also, ultimately, of hope." ― Juhea Kim, author of Beasts of a Little Land

It was never about being undocumented.