Julia Riew & Brad Riew @ The Strand

Author Photos Ramona Park & Marcos Ramirez

Join us for an in-person event at The Strand with debut authors Julia Riew and Brad Riew for the release of their new novel The Last Tiger.

Inspired by true stories from the authors’ grandparents’ lives during one of the darkest periods in Korean history, The Last Tiger is a young adult fantasy novel about the power of love to give voice to a broken people.

In a colonized land where tigers are being hunted to extinction and ancient magic stirs, two star-crossed teens—Lee Seung, a servant yearning for freedom, and Choi Eunji, a noble girl defying tradition—join forces to try and reshape their respective fates.

But their relationship evolves from begrudging accomplices to bitter adversaries as they soon find themselves on opposite sides of a battle over the last tiger, a symbol of their people’s lost freedom and key to the liberation of their country. As the ties between Seung and Eunji are complicated by their conflicting loyalties, tensions rise—especially when a charming princeling of the empire begins to rival for Eunji’s affection.

In this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story of forbidden romance, antagonists turned allies, oppression and liberation, neither Seung nor Eunji can abandon their mission—or each other. And as they embark on separate quests to find the elusive creature, each must also find the power within themselves to make their own destiny.

Joining Julia and Brad in conversation is critically acclaimed, bestselling author Chloe Gong.

 

Click Here to Purchase Your Ticket

 

Julia Riew & Brad Riew @ The Strand

Tuesday, July 29, 2025 | 7 PM


Strand Book Store – 3rd Floor, Rare Book Room
828 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

 

 

 


About the Speakers:

 

Julia Riew is a composer-lyricist, playwright, and novelist best known for her viral hit DIVE, a reimagining of the Korean folktale “Shimcheong,” which is currently being developed for the stage at the American Repertory Theater. In addition to winning the 2022 Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theater Songwriting, Julia has been Playbill’s Featured Songwriter of the Month, a Woman to Watch on Broadway, and a Princess Grace Honoraria recipient. Julia was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 2022 with a BA in theater and music.

 
 

Brad Riew is an MFA candidate in Fiction at New York University’s creative writing program. He graduated from Harvard College in 2018 with a degree in Psychology, where he won the Ecker Short Story Prize. The Last Tiger , co-written with his younger sister Julia Riew, is his first novel. Brad lives in Brooklyn, New York.

 

About the Moderator:

 
Photo Credit: One Grid Studio

Chloe Gong is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Secret Shanghai novels, as well as the Flesh and False Gods trilogy. Her books have been published in over twenty countries and have been featured in The New York Times, PEOPLE, Cosmopolitan, and more. She was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for 2024. Chloe graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English and International Relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, she is now located in New York City, pretending to be a real adult. Visit her online at thechloegong.com and on Instagram, X, and TikTok at @thechloegong.


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Author Talks: Kyung-Ran Jo

Author Photo © Park Jae-hong

A memorable existential tale.” —Publishers Weekly

An atmospheric, melancholic novel about a successful sculptor who decides to commit suicide by artfully preparing and deliberately eating a lethal dish of blowfish, Kyung-Ran Jo‘s Blowfish is a postmodern novel in four parts, alternating between the respective stories of a female sculptor and a male architect. The narrative loosely approximates a love story, but this is no romance in the normal sense. For the woman, the man is a pitstop on the road to her own suicide. For the man, the woman forestalls death and offers him a final chance. Through the conflicting impressions they have of one another, the characters look back on their lives; it is only the desire to create art that calls them back from death.

Evoking the heterogeneous urban spaces of Seoul and Tokyo, Blowfish delves into the inner life of a woman contemplating her failures in love and art. Jo’s fierce will to write animates the novel; the lethal taste of blowfish, which one cannot help but eat even though one may die in doing so, approximates the inexorable pains of writing a novel.

In this episode of Author Talks, Jo discusses her career in Korea and the English translation of her novel.

 

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Author Talks: Kyung-Ran Jo

Tuesday, July 15, 2025


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 

About the Speaker:

 

Kyung-Ran Jo made her literary debut in 1996 when her short story “The French Optical” won the Dong-a Ilbo New Writer’s Contest. She is the author of five story collections and three novels. Her novel Tongue was published in English by Bloomsbury in 2009. She is also the recipient of the Hyundae Munhak Award and the Dongin Prize, among others.


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Writing YA Novels with Claire Ahn and Kat Cho

 

Young adult literature is rapidly becoming one of the most popular genres in publishing today. Also increasingly visible are YA novels featuring Asian American and Pacific Islander characters at the forefront, providing insight into the expectations and identity issues many members of the AAPI community experience and offering a unique perspective on these universal themes.

Catherine Hong will moderate a discussion between YA authors Claire Ahn and Kat Cho about their latest books, the growing popularity of YA novels with Korean and Korean-American characters, and the shifting views surrounding Asian-American YA novels among both readers and the publishing industry.

 

To purchase signed books, please visit Books of Wonder.
 

Writing YA Novels with Claire Ahn and Kat Cho

Wednesday, May 28, 2025 | 6:30 PM (EDT)


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speakers:

 

Claire Ahn is the author of I Guess I Live Here Now and Bad Influence. She grew up in Seoul, Korea, and still considers it home. She moved to New York to attend university and now lives in Long Island City with her husband, daughter, and their dog, Dante. She writes about transcultural experiences and the traditions, values, and legacies that shape who we are.

 
 

Kat Cho is a New York Times and international bestselling author of Young Adult fiction. She received her BA in Biology from Wesleyan University and MPH in Community Education from CUNY Hunter in her past life as a clinical researcher. She advocates for equity and representation in publishing and media through her work with non-profits such as Diverse Voices Inc. ​Kat and her books have been featured in Entertainment Weekly, NBC.com, Refinery 29, and Seventeen. Her books include the Penguin One World One Book 2019 Selection, Wicked Fox, its international bestselling sequel, Vicious Spirits, and the NYT Bestselling Once Upon a K-Prom. Her latest book is Wish Upon a K-Star.

 

About the Moderator:

 

Catherine Hong is a journalist and children’s book critic who contributes to The New York Times, Architectural Digest and Oprah Daily, among other publications. Previously, she was an editor at W magazine and co-host of K-Pod, a podcast about Korean Americans in arts and culture produced by KoreanAmericanStory.org.


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Author Talks: Soyoung Park

Author Photo: Nara Shin

Prepare for the thrilling and highly anticipated conclusion to the instant New York Times bestselling book from Korea, which was named a Cosmopolitan Best Young Adult Book of the Year and a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. Promising even more dark secrets and shocking surprises, Snowglobe 2 sinks deeper into Chobahm’s frozen world, where the only truth that matters is the story that’s being told.

In a time when constant winter reigns, the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe offers a deceptive haven of warmth and safety. Snowglobe 2 plunges readers back into this society, where Chobahm must navigate a labyrinth of lies and danger. The illusions aired on TV, crafted by the Yibonn Media Group, were designed to placate and control the population, and as Chobahm uncovers the dark secrets behind this utopian facade, she is framed for murder and must work with an unlikely ally to clear her name. Delving deeply into the intricate themes of political turmoil, the pervasive power of media-driven misinformation, and the delicate balance of personal privacy in an era where every aspect of life is broadcast online, this sequel will have readers gripping their books with every twist and revelation.

In this episode of Author Talks, Soyoung Park discusses the English translation of her duology.

 

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Author Talks: Soyoung Park

Tuesday, May 6, 2025


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


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Author Talks: Lee Chang-dong

Author Photo: Oh Jung-mi

“Lee Chang-dong is a master storyteller of any form. This collection of his early works gives a deep, stark look at human stories from a Korea not too long ago. A gift to read.” —Steven Yeun, Academy Award nominee for Best Actor

Lee Chang-dong is one of South Korea’s most celebrated and influential directors. Known internationally for his films Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Poetry, Lee’s work is characterized by his meticulous eye for detail and his exploration of social issues and complex characters. Before turning to screenwriting and directing, Lee began his career as a writer of short fiction and novels. SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES, translated into English for the first time by Yoosup Chang and Heinz Insu Fenkl, is a brilliant and unsettling collection that investigates themes of love, injustice, betrayal, and terror—on both an intimate and national scale.

Originally published in Korea in the 1980s, and drawn from the author’s own experiences, the stories in SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES are haunting and deeply moving. As he does in his films, Lee dives deep into the mundane and the quiet, revealing our collective underlying pain, loneliness, and profound longing. In stunning prose, Lee moves swiftly between explorations of conflicts between family and memory, the powerful and the vulnerable, the rich and the poor, and conformists and rebels. The stories are visceral, contemplative, and thought-provoking. How is family memory preserved? How does danger and violence reverberate across generations?

In this episode of Author Talks, Lee Chang-dong discusses the English translation of his short stories.

 

Author Talks: Lee Chang-dong

Thursday, February 27, 2025


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


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Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness, and Longevity Michelle Jungmin Bang with Kathleen Kim

Author Photo © Phoebe Miu

As a Korean-American, Michelle Jungmin Bang grew up in a family of doctors, then spent years traveling, researching, and training in nutrition and preventative care to write and illustrate Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness, and Longevity.

The book follows one person’s journey to heal. This book is an homage to Michelle’s Korean heritage and two decades of living in Asia. In its pages, readers will find an inspiring man who reversed his type 2 diabetes and regained his vision; free divers who continue to live strong, foraging and protecting the ocean through their 90s; Buddhist nuns who unlock the secrets of temple food; health patterns Michelle discovered across China, Japan, and Korea; and steamy and ice cold and budget-friendly sauna house methods that match the best luxury spas in the world. Embracing new science while preserving the old ways of living – eating local, eating in season, eating real food, and reconnecting to nature – could solve many pressing issues our modern world faces today on chronic disease, climate change, and food waste.

In her conversation with Kathleen Kim, Bang discusses her book Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness & Longevity and reflects on how we can eat for healing, live sustainably, reconnect with nature, form deeper relationships with the Korean concept of jeong (the warm, invisible connection between loved ones and places), and more.

 

Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness, and Longevity
Michelle Jungmin Bang with Kathleen Kim

Tuesday, February 25, 2025 | 6:30 PM (EST)


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speaker:

Michelle Jungmin Bang is an award-winning Korean American eco-entrepreneur, Chivas Venture Social Impact Fellow, and Harvard Business School graduate born into a family of doctors. She is a preventative care expert, speaker, and the author of Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness & Longevity. She is known for translating research into strategies that promote a radical shift in healthcare that embraces self-care or preventative care, which blends new science and old wisdom. Michelle is passionate about driving social impact and serves as a board director and founding member of various mission-driven organizations, most recently GrowNYC, an environmental non-profit focused on food access, agriculture, and green spaces. She lives with her family in Hong Kong and New York City and has been invited to speak at organizations, including Google.

 

About the Moderator:

 

Kathleen Kim is a NYC-based puppeteer and voice artist as well as an Emmy-nominated producer for her work on Sesame Street’s AAPI special “See Us Coming Together,” which introduced Ji-Young — the show’s first Asian-American Muppet character in its 50+ year history which Kim has the great honor of performing. Other performance credits include Saturday Night Live, Awkwafina’s Nora From Queens, The Today Show, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Helpsters on Apple TV+, and Mo Willems’ The Pigeon Explains.


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Author Talks: Kim Suhyun & Anton Hur

In a world where it can seem impossible to feel you are ever good enough, and where it’s easy to judge yourself by the unrealistic standards, I Decided to Live as Me offers guidance and encouragement for celebrating yourself and feeling comfortable in your own skin.

Kim Suhyun is a writer and illustrator based in Seoul. In her own life, she realized that her self-esteem was the biggest battle she was facing. Surrounded by friends, co-workers, and especially social media, she couldn’t stop herself from comparing her life to others and measuring her successes against them. Recognizing that this was a dilemma that many people were facing, she decided to write her book in the hopes that it can provide comfort and advice to anyone else who has ever felt the same.

With her charming illustrations and uplifting language, Kim has reached millions of readers who have found inspiration in her journey of self-love. I Decided to Live as Me teaches you that by freeing yourself from the pressure of other people’s expectations, you can focus on what truly matters: living not for anyone else, but for yourself.

In this episode of Author Talks, Kim Suhyun is joined by Anton Hur, who translated I Decided to Live as Me, to discuss her English debut.

 

Author Talks: Kim Suhyun & Anton Hur

Wednesday, February 5, 2025


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speakers:

Kim Suhyun is a writer and illustrator based in Seoul. She loves drawing, so in college she studied design. She describes herself as “thoughtful but not too serious, lighthearted but not shallow.” Her books have sold more than two million copies in Korea, and I Decided to Live as Me is being published around the world in more than 12 languages.

Anton Hur is the author of Toward Eternity and the translator of Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny, Baek Sehee’s I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, Lee Seong-bok’s Indeterminate Inflorescence, Kyung-Sook Shin’s Violets, and others. He was double-longlisted and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, a finalist for the National Book Award, and nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He resides in Seoul.


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Author Talks: Yeon Somin

Author photo credit: © Han Sehee

Rising Korean literary star Yeon Somin makes her English-language debut with The Healing Season of Pottery, a feel-good story about a young woman finding solace and a sense of self through art. The winner of the prestigious Korea New Writers Award (for Lazy Kinko), Yeon’s latest, translated by the award-winning Clare Richards, is being published in eighteen countries. As elegantly molded and deeply satisfying as pottery itself, this shimmering work of comfort fiction shows that there is bravery in seeking peace, slowing down, and reawakening the creativity that makes us feel most alive.

Jungmin is thirty years old, alone, and completely at a loss for what to do with her life. She quits the TV news writing job that burns her out, but the months afterward, holed up in her barren apartment, hardly make things better. One day, her emotions boiling over, she runs out of her house screaming, and stumbles upon a new world: a neighborhood pottery studio with a kindhearted teacher she didn’t know she needed. Soyo Workshop colors Jungmin’s life with purpose and community, tools to help her heal. In the center of this newfound delight is Gisik, a magnetic new friend whose relationship just so happens to be falling apart. The soothing environment of the studio makes her feel enormously comfortable, but she can’t help but wonder if it might be worth it to disrupt her newfound peace.

In this episode of Author Talks, the author discusses her English debut.

 

 

Author Talks: Yeon Somin

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

 

 

 

 


About the Speaker:

Yeon Somin is a rising literary talent in Korea who has made her mark in both literary and television writing. She has received multiple accolades for her writing since her career as a novelist took off in 2022, when she received the prestigious Korea New Writers Award for her debut work, Lazy Kinko. Yeon is an active contributor to the Brunch writing community and has worked as a freelance television writer for major networks, including SBS, MBC, and YTN. During her free time, she finds solace in the art of pottery. The Healing Season of Pottery is her second novel, and her first to be translated around the world.


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Welcome to Marigold Mind Laundry, where we wash away the stains from your heart.

In this enchanting tale—a blockbuster bestseller in Korea—the enigmatic owner of a magical laundromat that erases people’s painful memories must learn to find her own peace before she can truly help others.

Born with mysterious powers she does not know how to control, young Jieun accidentally causes her family to vanish. She vows to live a million lives in search of them. One night, she brings the Marigold Mind Laundry into existence. Its service: to remove the deepest pain from our hearts. Jieun listens while customers share their unhappy memories. As they speak, she transfers their sadness onto T-shirts as stains. After a spin in the washing machine, the stains become flower petals that soar into the air, and Jieun’s customers find solace. And as Jieun listens to her customers’ stories, she learns that the will to heal is not a rare gift, but a power we all possess—if only we are open to it.

Joyous and inspiring, Marigold Mind Laundry, offers wonderment and comfort as it teaches us to tap into the magic that lives within us all.

In this episode of Author Talks, the author Jungeun Yun and translator Shanna Tan discuss the English publication of Marigold Mind Laundry.

 

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Author Talks: Jungeun Yun & Shanna Tan

Friday, November 1, 2024

 

 

 

 


About the Speakers:

Jungeun Yun is the author of more than ten books, including Live the Way You Want, Even If I Don’t Know How to Be an Adult and To Travel or To Love; and she hosts a podcast The Path of Books with Jungeun Yun. Her debut novel Marigold Mind Laundry was the No. 1 bestselling novel in Korea in 2023 and is due to be published in over 20 countries. Jungeun Yun lives in Korea.

 

Shanna Tan is a Singaporean translator working from Korean, Chinese and Japanese. Her translations include Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum and Yeonnam-dong’s Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jiyun.


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The Other Korea: Stories from the Diaspora

Join authors Ery Shin (Spring On the Peninsula) and Christine Ma-Kellams (The Band) as they discuss their books and stories from the Korean diaspora.

Longlisted for the 2024 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Spring On the Peninsula is Ery Shin’s debut novel about a desultory libertine who mourns a failed relationship over the course of two harsh winters. In this unprecedented portrait of millennials living in Seoul, Shin captures contemporary Seoul in all of its glory and turmoil, and this daringly irreverent novel is a poignant meditation on modern life in a city beset by North Korea’s shadow.

A psychologist with a savior complex offers shelter to a recently canceled K-pop idol in this “first great K-pop literary phenomenon” (Debutiful), The Band is a first novel from the cultural psychologist Christine Ma-Kellams. In its “gripping exploration of the complexities that accompany fame” (Booklist), The Band considers the many ways in which love and celebrity can devolve into something far more sinister.

Part of Town Hall’s “K-Town Hall Series,” each ticket includes a copy of Spring On the Peninsula and The Band.

 

Click Here to Purchase the Tickets

 

The Other Korea: Stories from the Diaspora

Saturday, October 12, 2024 | 3 PM (EDT)

 


The Town Hall Lounge
123 West 43rd Street
(Between 6th Ave and Broadway)
New York, NY 10036

 

 

 


About the Speakers:

Ery Shin was born in Ames, Iowa in 1986. She was raised in Manhattan for the first decade of her life, then Seoul for the second. She received a bachelor’s degree in English from Princeton University and a doctorate in the same discipline from the University of Oxford. The author of Gertrude Stein’s Surrealist Years, a study of Stein’s later experimental gestures and their philosophical implications within Hitler’s Europe, she is currently an assistant professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi. Spring on the Peninsula is her debut novel.

Christine Ma-Kellams is a Harvard-trained cultural psychologist, Pushcart-nominated fiction writer, and first-generation American. Her work and writing have appeared in HuffPost, Chicago Tribune, Catapult, Salon, The Wall Street Journal, the Rumpus, and many more publications. The Band is her first novel.


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