About

 

 

R. O. Kwon is the author of the nationally bestselling novel Exhibit, a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Kwon’s bestselling first novel, The Incendiaries, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Prize. With Garth Greenwell, Kwon co-edited Kink, a New York Times Notable Book. Kwon’s books have been translated into seven languages and named a best book of the year by over forty publications.

Kwon’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, New Yorker, Time, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and awards from MacDowell, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Yaddo. Kwon was the Stein Visiting Writer at Stanford University and the Mary Routt Chair of Writing at Scripps College, and has taught at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Workshop, and the University of San Francisco. Born in Seoul, Kwon has lived most of her life in the United States.

Black and white headshot of Korean woman in a trench coat

Photo: Jesse Dittmar