Creative Spotlight: Four YA Authors on Their Friendship, Writing Korean Diaspora Stories, and the BTS Concert in Las Vegas
K-pop fans know that the question โWhoโs your bias?โ will never receive a simple answer.
As four young adult (YA) authorsโAxie Oh (Rebel Seoul, Rogue Heart, XOXO, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea), Susan Lee (Seoulmates, out 9/20), Grace K. Shim (The Noh Family), and Sarah Suk (Made in Korea)โjoined the Zoom call one May evening, this question had to start the conversation. The reason? Not only are these authors friends, but they also all attended and met up at BTSโ Permission to Dance on Stage concert in Las Vegas this past April.
EnVi sat down to talk with Suk, Lee, Shim, and Oh about their author friendship, their stories centering Korean characters as Korean American and Korean Canadian writers, as well as their experiences at the latest BTS concert.
A Question of Bias
Sarah Suk jumped in first, firmly stating her bias is the rapper, main dancer, and sunshine member of BTS, j-hope. A smile danced on her lips, as she explained this was โconfirmed at the concert.โ But she did run through a variety of scenarios to ensure j-hope was her bias. When Suk recounted her thought process, she mentioned leader RM (if she โhad to marry one of themโ) and maknae Jungkook (if she had to tutor one of them in English, as she is fluent in both English and Korean). Susan Lee, who went to the concert with Suk, added while laughing, โSarah was going through an existential crisis.โ
Meanwhile, Lee has her one and only from BTS, although her bias wrecker is OT7. โMy bias from the beginning has been Tae,โ she said fondly. Referring to mischievous vocalist V by one of his many endearing nicknames, the author of the upcoming novel Seoulmates continued, โIt has always been Tae.โ
Axie Oh joined in on the love for the youngest BTS members, saying that โGolden Maknaeโ Jungkook is her bias. As a long time fan of K-pop, she has noticed she tends to be drawn to the โacesโ of a group. Airy vocalist, dynamic dancer and center, songwriter, producer, and director as well as the creator behind Golden Closet Film (G.C.F) Jungkook definitely fits this bill.
And while Grace K. Shim is not ARMY (she went to the concert with family), she did have her own tales about BTS. Part of the full concert experience was getting a crash course on the seven membersโ names, faces, and how to recognize them. โEvery time their faces flashed on the screen, [it was] like a flash card lightning round that my sister and I were playing.โ Shimโs ARMY friends on the call nodded, relating to these struggles and remembering the time when they, too, had started to learn BTSโ names and faces among the ever-changing hair colors and album concepts.
Permission to Dance on Stage and K-pop โOrigin Storiesโ
Around 200,000 people attended BTSโ Permission to Dance on Stage concert in Las Vegasโ Allegiant Stadium across the four daysโApril 8, 9, 15, and 16โand all of them came away with different memories. For Shim, witnessing non-Koreans and non-Asians in the crowd โsinging along with the Korean wordsโ of BTSโ songs struck her most. Lee had similar thoughts about BTSโ reach, although a moment that stood out to her was focused on the members themselves. โWhen they gave their ments unapologetically in Korean in Vegas, that meant so much [to me],โ in comparison to the Los Angeles concert when the seven prepared comments in English, though these were still heartfelt. For Lee, expressing their thoughts in their native Korean indicated that BTS were โnot losing touchโ with their roots nor with who they are.
Just like BTS experienced, and continue to experience, a road full of twists and turns to get to this Las Vegas stadium, so did the four authors. Shim, in particular, had an entertaining story to tell. Not only was she recently settling in at home after a family vacation, but once it was determined that she was going to the concert (โMy sister literally just emails [and] she goes, โSo hereโs your [plane] ticket and then hereโs your BTS [ticket],โ Shim recalled as the rest of us chuckled along), her flight through a budget airline got canceled. She just managed to grab one of the two seats remaining on the last flight that would get her to Las Vegas in time for the concert. Looking back on this adventure, Shim said, โI think it was in the cards that I needed to come to this concert.โ
Oh, Suk, and Lee did not have journeys to attend the BTS concert quite like Shim (although Canadian Suk did decide to go about a month before the date), but they did take various paths to dive into K-pop. Their โK-pop origin stories,โ if you will, as dubbed during the conversation. Since Sukโs older sister was a fan of K-pop when they were younger, the Made in Korea author naturally gravitated towards the music. Later on, she would translate variety show appearances and upload these versions to a fan forum after downloading the videos on LimeWire (#throwback), allowing non-Korean speaking fans to enjoy them.
Las Vegas resident Ohโs โorigin storyโ is also framed by family. Her mom listened to K-pop, and Oh listened to SHINHWA, SUPER JUNIOR, and EXO in high school. She also remembered her aunt and uncle gifting her Fin.K.Lโs โentire discography.โ As Oh recalled these moments and her experiences listening to her Diskman on the bus going to school, she said, โI never looked back.โ
Compared to Suk and Oh, Lee had a different relationship with K-pop. โI donโt know if I was a fan so much as I liked to listen to it because it was just a part of what was playing in the background of my house,โ she noted. Lee continued, musing that โI just really always separated Korean stuff and American stuff in my mind, so that included music.โ (She brought this personal experience into her debut novel, Seoulmates, and its main character Hannah Cho, who also tends to push away anything related to her Korean heritage). โI have embraced more of my Korean side because I found things that Iโve chosen to enjoy,โ Lee concluded. These things include BTSโ and Seventeenโs music.
Where It All Began
Sometimes itโs serendipitous when you connect with another personโor an artist like BTS. Although Suk, Shim, and Lee only met Oh in person for the first time at the BTS concert after being connected online for years (the first three are part of a writing group called the Kimchingoos together), Shim said it โfelt like we had known each other for a long time.โ
It was difficult to pinpoint who had met whom initially and when, but the four agreed with Lee when she stated, โWhen we found each other, it was really a gift to join together.โ The Seoulmates author continued, โWe got very lucky because we started off around the same time and have had really similarly paced journeys.โ When Oh touched on the isolating reality of writing and building a community, she echoed these sentiments: โIf you find people who also want the same things as you do, you can walk that path together.โ Luckily, the four have each other (and more) as their support systems and as people to grow with while they continue their publishing journeys.
Oh was the first of the friends to be published. In 2017, Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low, released her debut, Rebel Seoul, a sci-fi novel set in a futuristic Seoul and inspired by her love of mecha anime and K-dramas. Rogue Heart completed the duology in 2019. Lee commented that Oh has been a โtrailblazer in a lot of ways.โ A study conducted by the Cooperative Childrenโs Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison revealed that only 7% of books for young readers published in 2018 featured Asian Pacific Islander/Asian Pacific American characters. In contrast, 27% featured Animals/Other. In the face of these often discouraging numbers, Oh has stood out as a role model and mentor for other Asian creators striving to get their stories out in the western publishing world.
The publishing journeys of Suk, Shim, and Lee have begun a little more recently. Suk published her debut, Made in Korea, in 2021. However, her writing experience takes her back to the times when she penned stories for her Neopets and their newspaper called The Neopian Times. โIt was just a constant in my life,โ Suk mused. โThe career is the writing,โ she continued, explaining the mentality that drove her forward. Made in Korea, which shared a publication month with Ohโs third novel, XOXO, is about two high schoolers from the Korean diasporaโValerie is Korean American and Wes is a โthird culture kid,โ having grown up around the worldโwho run businesses out of their lockers. Tensions run high as Valerie fights to continue her status as the go-to K-beauty business and Wes, the quiet new kid, challenges this standing, but sparks unexpectedly fly between the two entrepreneurs.
Wes and Valerie may compete for the title of most successful K-business at school, but family and friendship is a common denominator for both of these characters. โ[B]ecause I write for kids and teens [and] those relationships are so formative in those yearsโฆit has to be a big presence in my stories,โ Suk noted.
Family Ties in the #22Debuts
The Noh Family, Shimโs debut, followed a year later, publishing this past May. An Oklahoma girl discovers she has an estranged (and ultra-rich) family on her deceased fatherโs side in South Korea after she takes a 23andMe test. Shimโs family also experienced a similar story, she elaborated during the call. This revelation prompted her to โexplore this theme of โAre you family because youโre related?โโ
Incidentally, Shim had never really considered writing as a career. โThereโs so many careers that need writing as a skill,โ she said of how she grew up viewing writing. But it wasnโt โin-and-of-itself anything you could pursue as a career.โ When Shim gave a โChapel Talkโ in high school (a privilege given to seniors to deliver a talk on a topic of their choosing, which were often personal stories), she realized the kind of impact her words could have on others. Her Chapel Talk was about her grandmother, who had recently passed away. โShe was probably one of the only people that I felt really bonded with me or could see me, even though we only saw each other once a year,โ Shim explained. โI surprisingly did not cry, but I remember afterwards a lot of my teachers were crying,โ she reflected. Years later, Shim began pursuing writing as a career, as it eventually became a necessary outlet. โThere was nothing else I could do but write.โ
Thereโs also a strong family element in Ohโs latest novel, the instant New York Times bestseller The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea. Inspired by the Korean myth of Shim Cheong and the Sea God who takes her as a bride, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea introduces a new voice to the storyโthat of a girl named Mina, whose brother Joon is Shim Cheongโs lover. Before Shim Cheong can be sacrificed to the Sea God to temporarily appease his stormy wrath, Mina takes the legendary beautyโs place. This novel, Oh stated, is โvery much the book of my heart,โ and such a strong family element drives it because family is โsomething that really mattered to me, and it made sense for the story.โ
Leeโs debut novel, Seoulmates, comes out this September. A fun friends-to-enemies-to-lovers story, Seoulmates weaves this refreshing romance with an exploration of Korean identity and a healthy splash of squeal-worthy tropes like โordinary girl meets famous (K-drama) star.โ However, Lee noted she doesnโt โwant to be a writer that only talks about Korean identity.โ She added, โBut I think right now thatโs whatโs on my heart, so thatโs why family and these friendships are centered in these stories.โ
Just as there is a diversity in BTS biases and publishing paths between the four authors, so do their writing journeys vary. As Lee observed, โI was not a reader or a writer growing up.โ She also had a long career in Human Resources for prolific corporations such as Spotify and Warby Parker. This path shifted to focus on writing because โI had stories to tell, and I get super stubborn. If thereโs something that I want to do, Iโm going to just dig my heels in and try and do it.โ To wrap up her thoughts, Lee gave a small smile as she said, โItโs just all unfolding as I go.โ
What Will I Get to See at the End of This Path?
As our conversation arrived at the two-hour mark, we concluded with another BTS-related question: โIf you could pitch your books as a BTS song, which one would you choose?โ Since Shimโs The Noh Family is all about DNA tests and family discoveries, everyone on the call agreed the 2017 hit โDNAโ fit perfectly. Oh tends to write her books to a dedicated album and for XOXO, her novel about a cello prodigy and a K-pop idol falling in love in Seoul, it was Map of the Soul: 7. The Girl From the Sea was written to original soundtracks (OSTs) from historical dramas, but she mentioned โSea,โ the hidden track on Love Yourself: Her, would be her choice for her latest book.
Lee continued the theme of sentimental BTS songs with her picks from the groupโs Youth Trilogy, notably โSpring Day,โ Hold Me Tight,โ and โSave Meโ (with a sprinkle of โReady to Loveโ by Seventeen). Sukโs Made in Korea would be the bright โBoy With Luvโ and following a clarifying question and a little more thought, a dash of the growly โBoy In Luvโ from BTSโ 2014 album Skool Luv Affair.
Throughout their nine-year career as BTS, the seven have tried a variety of genres and have told a multitude of stories, from the pure ambition in No More Dream to the reflection on their artistic identity in the recently released anthology album Proof. As for the stories Lee, Oh, Shim, and Suk want to tell, those span a wide range, too. However, a focus on opportunities echoes throughout all of their responses.
Lee knows she wants to continue writing about romance. She elaborated on this, stating, โI want to write about kids and adults falling in love, the messiness of that and the joy of that. I want to center that around Korean kids and Korean adults as often as I can.โ Shim has similar thoughts: โI think my early books I want to write are more centered around identity,โ a theme Lee had also touched upon earlier in the conversation. But Shim also doesnโt want to write just about identity, firmly concluding, โI want to write stories with a diverse cast including Asian Americans as the lead and Korean Americans as the lead.โ
For Oh, the opportunity to explore different kinds of stories is important. โI like having flexibility,โ she said, โbut always staying true to me.โ She also deliberated, โWe want to embrace our culture, but donโt want it forced upon us,โ speaking on how the Hallyu Wave has impacted the visibility of Korean culture in the mainstream and publishing world. Lee also added on to these thoughts, noting, โI donโt want there to be a scarcity mentalityโ surrounding whose stories get to make it to readers, especially those by and featuring Koreans. There are endless stories and experiences out there that deserve to be heard, like Suk stated, โI just want to do what is meaningful for me, and I want to create lots of different things.โ She continued, adding, โI want to just pursue whatever I feel led to next.โ
These four YA authors and BTS have more in common than one might believe at first. Sold-out stadium tours, breaking records left-and-right in the music industry and beyond, debuting on The New York Times bestseller list, writing books beloved by many in the United States and around the world all have years of storytelling and a desire to try something new at their foundations. As Suk declared, the โpotential is limitlessโ indeed.
Keep up with Susan Lee, Axie Oh, Grace K. Shim, and Sarah Suk on social media, and add their books on Goodreads:
- Susan Lee โ Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
- Axie Oh โ Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
- Grace K. Shim โ Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
- Sarah Suk โ Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Want more bookish content? Check out EnViโs book recommendations for K-pop fans here!
