The Korea Society and KoreanAmericanStory.org presented an evening of readings by acclaimed Korean adoptee writers. Matthew Salesses, Milton Washington, Heather Schultz, and Kim Sunee shared their unique voices and powerful stories as they read works both new and old. A panel discussion moderated by Korean adoptee and KAS Board Chair Julie Young followed the readings.
Thursday, September 17, 2015 | 6:30 PM
If you have any questions, please contact Jamie Tyberg or (212) 759-7525, ext. 321.
About KoreanAmericanStory
KoreanAmericanStory's mission is to capture and preserve the Korean American experience through personal stories. The organization wholly embraces the many different groups of Korean-Americans, including adoptees, the LGBTQ community and mixed race Korean-Americans. Signature projects, such as The Legacy Project video series, showcase the personal stories of members of the Korean American community from a first person perspective. All of the content created by and for KoreanAmericanStory is being permanently archived in the Korean Heritage Library of the University of Southern California.
About the Authors
Matthew Salesses was adopted from Korea. He is the author of The Hundred-Year Flood. His stories and essays have appeared in NPR, The New York Times, the Center for Asian American Media, Hyphen, Koream, Korean American Story, and others. His previous books include Different Racisms: On Stereotypes, the Individual, and Asian American Masculinity (essays) and I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying (a novel).
Born in South Korea, Milton was adopted and brought to the states in 1979 where he learned English and the American culture. Today he lives in Harlem and operates a boutique production and photography business called Slickyboy Studios while completing his memoir by the same name—Slickyboy. His memoir, Slickyboy, tells the story of a fatherless black boy who was born to a Korean prostitute a decade and-a-half after the Korean War. Left to roam his camptown with a pack of homeless kids, little Milton-ah fights, steals, and drinks while his mother works long hours. All until the age of 8, when he’s adopted from the country that never claimed him, by a black military family from Texas, the Washingtons. Slickyboy is about the love and the loss of one mother, and a finding of another, with a lifetime of living in between.
Heather Schultz is a Korean-American journalist based in Long Island. She received both a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and Master of Public Administration from CUNY Baruch College. Her articles have been published in The New York Times, NBC News, New York Daily News, St. Louis-Post Dispatch, WhoSay, Library Journal, Direct Marketing News and Law Technology News. She has also written columns on reproductive health for the Center for American Progress and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As an avid spoken word lover, she has performed long-form poems in New York City based on her upcoming memoir regarding her experiences as an adoptee and domestic violence survivor in suburban Long Island. In addition, Heather is on the Board of Directors of Also-Known-As.
Kim Sunée was born in South Korea, adopted, and raised in New Orleans. She is the author of the national bestseller, Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home (Grand Central Publishing). Trail of Crumbs has been translated into Korean, Chinese, and Hebrew. Her cookbook, A Mouthful of Stars was published in May 2014 by Andrews McMeel. She has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Ladies’ Homes Journal, People, ELLE, and Glamour. She ate and lived in Europe–mostly France–for ten years before working as a food editor for Southern Living magazine and Cottage Living magazine. Her writing has appeared in Food & Wine, The Oxford American, Cooking Light, and Asian American Poetry and Writing. Sunée has appeared several times as a guest judge on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America. She is currently a food columnist for Alaska Dispatch and freelances as a recipe tester, editor, and food stylist. For more food and travel, please visit www.kimsunee.com.
