AAWW & The Strand Present: Isabel J. Kim + Jinwoo Chong

Join us for a release event with award-winning short fiction writer Isabel J. Kim, discussing her debut book SUBLIMATION.

Heralded as "one of the best debuts of the year" by SFF legend John Scalzi, this thrilling novel imagines a world where crossing a border splits you into two lives, and characters must confront what they owe to their other selves.

Moderating this discussion is award winning author Jinwoo Chong. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.

This event is co-presented with the Asian American Writers' Workshop. For more information, please visit their website at aaww.org.

Can’t make the event? Purchase a signed copy of Sublimation here.

ACCESSIBILITY:

Strand Book Store is an ADA compliant venue. The event space is accessible via elevator.

ASL interpretation is available for this event by request only. Please reach out to our events team at events@strandbooks.com by May 19 to request.

Please ask a Strand employee upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred.

For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact events@strandbooks.com

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Doppelgangers, corporate intrigue, heartbreak, betrayal, and the harsh permanence of the border: Sublimation is a thrilling and provocative debut for fans of Severance that asks what you'd sacrifice for a different life from award-winning author Isabel J. Kim.

The border cuts you in two.

When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.

Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral.

She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life.
How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?

For over 30 years, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) has been dedicated to publishing and amplifying Asian American literary culture. Operating from a radically inclusive ethos, AAWW expands the definition not only of who is a writer, but also of who is Asian American. Through a robust and diverse lineup of programming, AAWW serves as a vital sanctuary space for writers and readers alike.

Photo credit: Amanda Silberling

Isabel J. Kim lives near New York City in an apartment filled with books and swords. She is the author of numerous short stories and has won the Nebula, Locus, and the Shirley Jackson Award. Her work has been translated into multiple languages and reprinted in multiple best of the year anthologies. When she’s not writing, she’s practicing law or podcasting. Sublimation is her first novel.

Photo credit: Kristen Fedor

Jinwoo Chong is the author of I Leave It Up to You and the novel Flux, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway and VCU Cabell First Novel awards, a New York Times Editors' Choice, and named a best book of the year by Esquire, GQ, and Cosmopolitan. His short stories and other work have appeared in The Southern Review, Guernica, The Rumpus, LitHub, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature. He lives in New York.