Suki Kim
Suki Kim is a Korean American journalist and writer. She is the author of two books: the award-winning novel The Interpreter and a book of investigative journalism, Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite. Kim is the only writer ever to have lived undercover in North Korea to conduct immersive journalism.[2] Kim is currently a contributing editor at The New Republic.
Suki Kim | |
---|---|
At Miami Book Fair International, Nov. 2015 | |
Born | Seoul, South Korea |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Barnard College [1] |
Genre | novel, essay |
Notable works | The Interpreter, Without You, There is No Us |
Notable awards | PEN Beyond Margins Award Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award |
Website | |
SukiKim.com |
Early life
Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the United States with her family at thirteen. Kim is a naturalized American citizen.
Kim graduated from Barnard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Kim also studied East Asian Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She has received a Fulbright Research Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Open Society Foundations Fellowship. Kim was also a Ferris Journalism Fellow at Princeton University, where she was a visiting lecturer.[3][4]
Work
The Interpreter
Kim's debut novel, The Interpreter, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, is a murder mystery about a young Korean-American woman, Suzy Park, living in New York City and searching for answers as to why her shopkeeper parents were murdered. Kim took a short term job as an interpreter in New York City when working on the novel to look into the life of an interpreter.[5] The book received positive critic reviews[6] and won several awards. The Interpreter was translated into Dutch, French, Korean, Italian, and Japanese.
Visits to North Korea and Second Book
Kim visited North Korea in February 2002 to participate in the 60th birthday celebration of Kim Jong-il. She documented this experience in a February 2003 cover essay for The New York Review of Books.[7]
Kim accompanied the New York Philharmonic in February 2008, when they traveled to Pyongyang for the historical cultural visit to North Korea from the United States. Her article, "A Really Big Show: The New York Philharmonic's fantasia in North Korea," was published in Harper's Magazine in December 2008.[8]
Her second book, Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite, is a work of investigative journalism about her six months in Pyongyang, where she taught English at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology in 2011.[9]
The book has resulted in some controversy, with reviewers claiming that Kim brought harm on the students she wrote about, and that she caused tensions between the university and the North Korean government. The university staff accused Kim of making false claims about them. [10] However, Kim addressed her critics in a June 2016 essay in The New Republic. Kim mentioned the shortcomings of labelling her second book as a memoir and the irony in reviewers dismissing this work for containing the components typically praised in investigative journalism. Kim also described how racism and sexism influenced public views on her expertise.[11] Her publisher subsequently removed the label "memoir" from the cover of Without You, There Is No Us.
Latest Work
In 2017, Suki Kim broke a sexual harassment scandal against John Hockenberry at WNYC in her article in The Cut.[12] Her investigation led to the firing of two longterm WNYC hosts, Leonard Lopate and Jonathan Schwartz,[13] as well as the eventual resignation of its CEO, Laura Walker,[14] and Chief Content officer, Dean Cappello.[15] Her article was voted as the Best Investigative Reporting of 2017 by Longreads.[16]
In 2020, Kim published an investigative feature in The New Yorker[17] on Free Joseon, a group that has declared itself a provisional government for North Korea, and she was the first to interview the group's leader Adrian Hong while he was on the run from the Department of Justice.
Bibliography
Books
Year | Title |
---|---|
2003 | The Interpreter |
2014 | Without You, There Is No Us; My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite |
Anthologies
Year | Title | Ref |
---|---|---|
2005 | New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times | |
2017 | The Moth Presents All These Wonders | [18] |
2018 | The Best American Essays 2018 | [19] |
About North Korea and South Korea
Year | Title | Publication | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
2003 | A Visit to North Korea | The New York Review of Books | [20] |
2003 | Korea's New Wave | The New York Times | [21] |
2003 | Strange Centennial | The Boston Globe | |
2005 | Die Ahnen und die Wasser (The Anticipation of the Water) | Neue Zurcher Zeitung | [22] |
2005 | Hwang, Drawn and Quartered? | The Wall Street Journal | [23] |
2006 | Great Leadership | The Wall Street Journal | [24] |
2007 | Asia's Apostles | The Washington Post | [25] |
2007 | Globalizing Grief | The Wall Street Journal | [26] |
2008 | A Really Big Show: The New York Philharmonic’s Fantasia in North Korea | Harper's | [27] |
2009 | Notes from Another Credit Card Crisis | The New York Times | [28] |
2010 | The System of Defecting | Harper's | [29] |
2010 | North Korean Fans Attend the World Cup | Newsweek | [30] |
2013 | The Shared Wound in Korea | The New York Times | [31] |
2013 | The Dear Leader's Heinous Act | The New York Times | [32] |
2014 | The Good Student in North Korea | The New York Times Magazine | [33] |
2014 | My Time at an Elite Pyongyang Boarding School | Foreign Affairs | [34] |
2014 | Teaching Essay Writing in Pyongyang | Slate | [35] |
2014 | The Sony Hack Is North Korea's Biggest Victory in a Long Time | Slate | [36] |
2014 | Dear Leader's Great Victory | The National Post | [37] |
2014 | The Secret Shame of North Korea's Slave Workers | Newsweek | [38] |
2015 | What ‘The Interview’ Gets Right and Wrong about US Policy Toward North Korea | The Nation | [39] |
2016 | Is it Time to Intervene in North Korea? | The New Republic | [40] |
2016 | Republic of Disappointment. | Slate | [41] |
2016 | Across the Broken Bridge | The New Republic | [42] |
2016 | Korean Reporters Got Fired, Got Active, and Got The President | Foreign Policy | [43] |
2017 | The Meaning of Kim Jong Nam's Murder | The Atlantic | [44] |
2017 | An Extraordinary Statement from a North Korean Prince | The New Yorker | [45] |
2017 | Is Christian Evangelicals’ Money Helping to Prop Up North Korea’s Regime? | The Washington Post | [46] |
2017 | Tourism to North Korea isn’t about engagement. It’s torture porn. | The Washington Post | [47] |
2017 | My two messed-up countries: an immigrant’s dilemma | The Guardian | [48] |
2017 | South Korea Is More Worried About Donald Trump Than Kim Jong Un | Foreign Policy | [49] |
2018 | The Dealmaker | The New Republic | [50] |
2018 | Covering the North Korea Summit While Trapped in a Warehouse in Singapore | The New Yorker | [51] |
2018 | North Korea’s Lipstick Diplomacy | The New York Times | [52] |
2020 | How South Korea Lost Control of Its Coronavirus Outbreak | The New Yorker | [53] |
2020 | The Underground Movement Trying To Topple the North Korean Regime | The New Yorker | [54] |
Other work
Year | Title | Publication | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
2003 | Translating Poverty and Pain | The New York Times | [55] |
2003 | Marriage of Inconvenience? | The New York Times | [56] |
2003 | North Ride Home | Gourmet | |
2004 | Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl's Habits | The New York Times | [57] |
2006 | Our Affair Was One Long Lesson in How to Break Up | The New York Times | [58] |
2010 | Forced from Home and Yet Never Free of it | The New York Times | [59] |
2015 | Love Stories: Why I Flew to Beijing in Search of the Perfect Dress | Vogue | [60] |
2016 | Mr Rubio's Neighborhood | The New Republic | [61] |
2016 | The Reluctant Memoirist | The New Republic | [62] |
2016 | What Happened in Brisbane | The New Republic | [63] |
2017 | Land of Darkness | Lapham's Quarterly | [64] |
2017 | Public-Radio Icon John Hockenberry Accused of Harassing Female Colleagues | The Cut | [65] |
Awards
Year | Title | Notes | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
2003 | Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award | The Interpreter, winner | [66] |
2004 | Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award | The Interpreter, nominee | [67] |
2004 | PEN Openbook Award | The Interpreter, winner | [68] |
2019 | Berlin Prize | Winner | [69] |
Fellowships
Year | Title | Ref |
---|---|---|
1998 | Millay Colony for the Arts | [70] |
1998 | Ucross Foundation | [71] |
1999 | Ragdale Foundation | [72] |
1999 | The Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellowship | [73] |
2001 | MacDowell Fellowship | [74] |
2002 | MacDowell Fellowship | [74] |
2003 | MacDowell Fellowship | [74] |
2003 | Santa Maddalena Foundation Fellowship | [75] |
2005 | Ucross Foundation | [76] |
2006 | Guggenheim Fellowship | [77] |
2006 | MacDowell Fellowship | [74] |
2007 | Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship | [78] |
2010 | MacDowell Fellowship | [74] |
2012 | George Soros's Open Society Foundations Fellowship | [79] |
2014 | New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship | [80] |
2017 | Ferris Journalism Fellowship at Princeton University. | [81] |
2018 | Ucross Foundation | [82] |
2019 | Arizona State Universitys Center on the Future of War Fellowship | [83] |
2019 | New America's Fellowship | [84] |
2019 | MacDowell Fellowship | [74] |
2020 | Schloss Wiepersdorf Fellowship | [85] |
See also
References
- "Educating the Elite", Barnard magazine, Winter 2015 issue. Accessed June 29, 2020
- https://theintercept.com/2017/09/04/undercover-in-north-korea-all-paths-lead-to-catastrophe/
- "The Moth | The Art and Craft of Storytelling". The Moth. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
- "Suki Kim — Journalism". journalism.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
- Kim, Suki (March 2, 2003). "NEW YORK OBSERVED: Translating Poverty and Pain". The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
- Yoon, Cindy. "Suki Kim and 'The Interpreter'". Asia Society.
- Kim, Suki (February 13, 2003). "A Visit to North Korea". The New York Review of Books.
- Szalai, Jennifer (December 3, 2008). "Talking with Suki Kim". Harper's Magazine.
- "Suki Kim: 'Without You, There Is No Us'". The Diane Rehm Show. October 15, 2014.
- Gladstone, Rick (November 30, 2014). "Tales Told Out of School in Pyongyang Cause Stir". The New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
- Kim, Suki (June 27, 2016). "The Reluctant Memoirist". The New Republic.
- Kim, Suki (2017-12-01). "Public-Radio Icon John Hockenberry Accused of Harassing Female Colleagues". The Cut. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- "New York Public Radio Fires Hosts Lopate and Schwartz | WNYC | New York Public Radio, Podcasts, Live Streaming Radio, News". WNYC. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- "Embattled Head of New York Public Radio to Step Down (Published 2018)". www.nytimes.com. 2018-12-19. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- Falk, Tyler; Reporter. "Cappello leaves WNYC after more than 20 years". Current. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- "Longreads Best of 2017: Investigative Reporting". Longreads. 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- Kim, Suki. "The Underground Movement Trying to Topple the North Korean Regime". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- "The Moth: All These Wonders – stories from Dunnes Stores to North Korea". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Suki Kim". New America. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "A Visit to North Korea by Suki Kim | The New York Review of Books". web.archive.org. 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Opinion | Korea's New Wave (Published 2003)". www.nytimes.com. 2003-05-10. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
- Kim, Suki (2005). "The anticipation of the water".
- Kim, Suki (2005-12-29). "Hwang, Drawn and Quartered?". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2006-10-16). "Great Leadership". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2007-07-25). "Suki Kim - Asia's Apostles". ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2007-04-24). "Globalizing Grief". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2008). "A really big show" (PDF). Harper's.
- "Opinion | Notes From Another Credit Card Crisis (Published 2009)". www.nytimes.com. 2009-05-18. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
- "[Article] The system of defecting, By Suki Kim". Harper's Magazine. 2010-07-01. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- EDT, Suki Kim On 6/25/10 at 8:45 AM (2010-06-25). "North Korean Fans Attend the World Cup". Newsweek. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2013-02-25). "Opinion | Shared Wounds in Korea (Published 2013)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2013-12-16). "Opinion | The Dear Leader's Heinous Act (Published 2013)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2014-10-31). "The Good Student in North Korea (Published 2014)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- Kim, Suki (2015-09-17). "North Korea's Real Hunger". ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2014-12-02). "I Asked My North Korean Students to Write Critical Essays. They All Chose America as Their Topic". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2014-12-22). "The Sony Hack Is North Korea's Biggest Victory in a Long Time". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Suki Kim: Dear Leader's great victory". nationalpost. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- EST, Suki Kim On 12/4/14 at 12:33 PM (2014-12-04). "The Secret Shame of North Korea's Slave Workers". Newsweek. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2015-01-16). "What 'The Interview' Gets Right—and Wrong—About US Policy Toward North Korea". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2016-01-11). "Is it Time to Intervene in North Korea?". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2016-11-18). "Why South Koreans Are So Enraged by Their President's Bizarre Scandal". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2016-05-09). "Across the Broken Bridge". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki. "Korean Reporters Got Fired, Got Active, and Got The President". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2017-02-24). "The Meaning of Kim Jong Nam's Murder". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- Kim, Suki. "An Extraordinary Statement from a North Korean Prince". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki. "Opinion | Is Christian evangelicals' money helping to prop up North Korea's regime?". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki. "Opinion | Tourism to North Korea isn't about engagement. It's torture porn". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "My two messed-up countries: an immigrant's dilemma". the Guardian. 2017-05-08. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki. "South Korea Is More Worried About Donald Trump Than Kim Jong Un". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2018-10-22). "The Dealmaker". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki. "Covering the North Korea Summit While Trapped in a Warehouse in Singapore". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Opinion | North Korea's Lipstick Diplomacy (Published 2018)". www.nytimes.com. 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki. "How South Korea Lost Control of Its Coronavirus Outbreak". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki. "The Underground Movement Trying to Topple the North Korean Regime". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "NEW YORK OBSERVED; Translating Poverty and Pain (Published 2003)". www.nytimes.com. 2003-03-02. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
- "NEW YORK OBSERVED; Marriage of Inconvenience? (Published 2003)". www.nytimes.com. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
- "'Facing Poverty With a Rich Girl's Habits' (Published 2004)". www.nytimes.com. 2004-11-21. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
- Kim, Suki (2006-09-24). "Our Affair Was One Long Lesson in How to Break Up (Published 2006)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Forced From Home Yet Never Free of It (Published 2010)". www.nytimes.com. 2010-12-08. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
- Kim, Suki. "Love Stories: Why I Flew to Beijing in Search of the Perfect Dress". Vogue. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2016-03-07). "Mr. Rubio's Neighborhood". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2016-06-27). "The Reluctant Memoirist". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- Kim, Suki (2016-09-15). "What Happened in Brisbane". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Land of Darkness | Suki Kim". Lapham’s Quarterly. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- Kim, Suki (2017-12-01). "Public-Radio Icon John Hockenberry Accused of Harassing Female Colleagues". The Cut. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award". web.mnstate.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- "List of PEN/Hemingway Winners | The Hemingway Society". www.hemingwaysociety.org. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- "PEN Open Book Award Winners". PEN America. 2016-04-29. Retrieved 2020-12-03.
- "Suki Kim". American Academy. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "ALUMNI". Millay Colony for the Arts. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
- "Ucross Foundation". web.archive.org. 2004-07-25. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
- "Ragdale".
- "Former Fellows 1999". The Edward F. Albee Foundation. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
- "Suki Kim - Artist". MacDowell. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Santa Maddalena Foundation | The Fellows". Santa Maddalena Foundation. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
- "Ucross Foundation Newsletter" (PDF).
- "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Suki Kim". Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Fellows News | Bogliasco Foundation". www.bfny.org. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
- "Open Society Fellowship". www.opensocietyfoundations.org. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "NYFA Proudly Announces the 2014 Artists' Fellowships Awardees". NYFA. 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Suki Kim — Journalism". journalism.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Ucross Foundation - Literature Alumni". UCROSS. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
- "Center on the Future of War fellow Suki Kim wins prestigious Berlin Prize". ASU Now: Access, Excellence, Impact. 2019-05-23. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Center on the Future of War fellow Suki Kim wins prestigious Berlin Prize". ASU Now: Access, Excellence, Impact. 2019-05-23. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- "Suki Kim - Schloss Wiepersdorf (en)". www.schloss-wiepersdorf.de. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Suki Kim. |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Suki Kim |
- Official Website
- Suki Kim on Twitter