© Jack Lee
Juhea Kim was born in Incheon, Korea, and moved to Portland, Oregon, at age nine. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Art and Archaeology and a certificate in French. Her debut novel Beasts of a Little Land, a finalist for the 2022 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and a bestseller in the US and Korea, was published by Ecco in December 2021. Translated into Russian, it was longlisted for the 2024 Yasnaya Polyana Prize, the largest annual literary prize in Russia administered by the Leo Tolstoy Museum-Estate. It has been published in 13 countries to date. Beasts of a Little Land also has been optioned for a TV series, for which she is serving as an executive producer. Her second novel City of Night Birds is forthcoming from Ecco in November 2024.
Her writing has been published in Granta, Slice, Zyzzyva, Catapult, Times Literary Supplement, Joyland, Shenandoah, Guernica, Sierra Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, The Independent, Portland Monthly, and Dispatches from Annares anthology, among others. Her translation of Yi Sang Award-winning author Choi In-Ho was published in Granta.
Juhea is the founder and editor of Peaceful Dumpling, an online magazine covering sustainable lifestyle and ecological literature. She has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference and Regional Arts & Culture Council. She has given lectures and workshops at Arizona State University (a 2020 Desert Nights Rising Stars Fellow), Seoul National University, Yonsei University, the University of São Paulo (forthcoming), Seoul International Book Fair, Portland Book Festival, Seoul Women's University, La Sierra University, Keimyung University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and more. She's also spoken about her sustainability entrepreneurship at Princeton University, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Athleta.
She is donating a portion of the worldwide proceeds of Beasts of a Little Land to the Phoenix Fund, a Siberian tiger and Amur leopard conservation nonprofit based in Vladivostok, Russia. She serves as a goodwill ambassador for the Korean Tiger Leopard Conservation Fund.
Juhea has been an ethical vegan since the age of 19. She advocates for plant-based eating, composting, low-waste and low-plastic footprint, #adoptdontshop, and other compassionate and eco-friendly ways of living. She lives with two adorable rescue cats: Kili (Achilles) and Ody (Odysseus). She is based in London and Portland, Oregon.
© Kwon Hyeok-jae 권혁재 for JoongAng Daily. Please do not use without permission.
© Kwon Hyeok-jae 권혁재 for JoongAng Daily. Please do not use without permission.