R.O. Kwon presents her acclaimed debut novel The Incendiaries, which was named a best book of the year by more than 40 publications. Kwon is joined by author Nami Mun, whose first book Miles From Nowhere won multiple awards and led to Mun being named 2009's Best New Novelist by Chicago Magazine. Books will be sold and signed following the discussion.
The Incendiaries is a powerful, darkly glittering novel about violence, love, faith, and loss, as a young Korean American woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea. This novel, which the The Guardian called "a startlingly assured book by an important new writer," is a fractured love story and a brilliant examination of the minds of extremist terrorists, and of what can happen to people who lose what they love most.
The Incendiaries is being translated into five languages and is an American Booksellers Association Indie Next #1 Great Read, as well as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for Best First Book, Los Angeles Times First Book Prize, and Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Prize. In addition, The Incendiaries is nominated for the Aspen Prize and American Library Association Carnegie Medal.
R.O KWON's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Paris Review, Vice, BuzzFeed, NPR's "Selected Shorts," and elsewhere. She has received awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Born in South Korea, she has mostly lived in the United States.
NAMI MUN's first book Miles From Nowhere received a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Chicago Public Library's 21st Century Award, the Hopwood Award, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers and the Asian American Literary Award. Miles From Nowhere was also selected as Editors' Choice and Top Ten First Novels by Booklist; Best Fiction of 2009 So Far by Amazon; and as an Indie Next Pick.
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