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<\/a><\/p>\nNorth Korea is often represented as an unknowable space: a militarized space with few computers, no Internet, and a government mouthpiece that reports almost no news. Join us with two award-winning authors who seek to imagine and tell stories from the so-called Hermit Kingdom: Krys Lee, whose new novel is one of the most anticipated books of 2016 (The Millions) and National Book Award-nominated journalist Barbara Demick. The event will be moderated by former AAWW Open City Fellow Sukjong Hong.<\/p>\n
In Krys Lee\u2019s new novel How I Became a North Korean (Viking 2016), the three main characters must struggle to survive together when they find themselves in a small Chinese town just across the river from North Korea: Youngju, a student from a prominent North Korean family; Jangmi, a smuggler who\u2019s had to fend for herself since childhood; and Danny, a Chinese American teenager from California. In the words of Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author: \u201cLee forges a world no other writer could create, one where the only response to longing and loss is learning to trust and hope again.\u201d An assistant professor at Yonsei University, Underwood International College, in South Korea, Krys previously read at AAWW for her short story collection Drifting House. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize and the Story Prize Spotlight Award, the Honor Title in Adult Fiction Literature from the Asian\/Pacific American Libraries Association, and a finalist for the BBC International Story Prize.<\/p>\n