Beasts of a Little Land(118)

My mother, Inja Kim, provided me with her favorite book on literary theory (edited by Kim Hyun), discussions on Korean linguistics and literature, and history lessons—both of the country and of our family. Her stories of her father, Kim TaeHee, his golden-brown eyes, and his mysterious trips to Shanghai during the colonial period became the inspiration for this novel. My father, Hackmoo Kim, mailed me books from Portland to New York, and always picked up any tomes that he thought I might find even slightly inspiring or interesting. But my parents helped write this book long before I even knew I was going to be a writer, passing down their love of the arts and nature, and teaching me how to live as an artist and as a human being. They believed in me before I had any belief in myself. I owe them everything.

And, finally, to David Shaw, the great inyeon of my life. We met before we even met, which is how I know everything I wrote in this novel is true.





About the Author


JUHEA KIM was born in Incheon, Korea, and moved to Portland, Oregon, at age nine. Her writing has been published in Granta, Guernica, Catapult, ZYZZYVA, and other outlets. She is the founder and editor of Peaceful Dumpling, an online magazine at the intersection of sustainable lifestyle and ecological literature. She earned her BA in art and archaeology from Princeton University. Beasts of a Little Land, her debut novel, will be translated and published around the world. After a decade in New York City, Kim now lives with her two rescue cats in Portland, Oregon.

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