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R. O. Kwon 권오경

@rokwon.bsky.social
27K followers 1.3K following 568 posts

nationally bestselling novels Exhibit & The Incendiaries • co-edited Kink • Lambda Literary Prize www.ro-kwon.com

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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
writers! If you’re looking for mentorship & you’re of color, Periplus is going into its seventh(!) year of annually pairing 50ish writers who are newer to publishing with more established writers. Periplus is taking applications through 10/11 🌱 faqs below docs.google.com/document/d/1...
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
we’re in POETS & WRITERS! Fatimah Asghar, @ingridrojasc.bsky.social, & I are featured in the new issue as part of a piece on our collective The Ministry of Words & other alternatives to in-person MFAs 5 days until fall workshops start, with spots open in fiction & nonfiction theministryofwords.com
Sept. / Oct. 2026 Poets & Writers cover heading with text: 

Begin where you are: your path to a literary education 

Headshots of R. O. Kwon, Fatimah Asghar, & Ingrid Rojas Contreras
a photo of text from the new issue of Poets & Writers a photo of text from the new issue of Poets & Writers cover of POETS & WRITERS with Min Jin Lee, books and coffee mug in the background
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
some go-to drafting strategies from me & @ingridrojasc.bsky.social 🟢 as Ingrid puts it, part of writing a book necessarily involves “the art of keeping oneself going” day after day after day 3 weeks until writing workshops start at The Ministry of Words, more info below 🔵 theministryofwords.com
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
dry-farmed tomato season is starting with 20 lbs. of this abundance hallelujah I praise the tomato gods 🔴🔸 this is also the time of year when I need to be very careful not to eat so many tomatoes I turn noticeably orange, ask me how I learned such a transformation is possible 🍅s from Mariquita Farm
four white bowls of tomatoes on a white kitchen countertop
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
the pleasure of watching this part of the website for our collective, The Ministry of Words, grow & grow 🌱 we have spots open for writing classes taught by @ingridrojasc.bsky.social, Fatimah Asghar, & yours truly. & scholarships are available for writers of color theministryofwords.com
Screenshot with text:

The Ministry of Words

Student and Alumni News

We had an inaugural Ministry-wide celebratory reading with our first spring cohort on July 9, 2026! 

Ministry alumnus Lenna Jawdat’s poetry collection, 70,000, is out from Central Avenue Books! The book was chosen by the American Booksellers Association for both their Indies Introduce and Indie Next lists.  

Ministry alumnus Sarah Ghazal Ali has a poem, “Künstlerroman,” out with Poem-a-Day at poets.org!

Ministry alumnus Aarti Shahani hosted an episode of NPR’s Fresh Air with photojournalist Loubna Mrie!

Ministry participant Crystal Theresa Z. Ejanda has new fiction
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
“Why am I so isolate in this strange place? Why is my sweat being sold as an elixir?” cackled at this description of writing from Joy Williams’s exquisite “Uncanny the Singing That Comes from Certain Husks” digitalexhibits.library.washu.edu/s/joy-willia...
screenshot of a passage:

But who cares if the writer is not whole? Of course the writer is not whole or even particularly well. There is something unwholesome and destructive about the entire writing process. Writers are like eremites or anchorites—natural-born eremites or anchorites—who seem puzzled as to why they went up the pole or into the cave in the first place. Why am I so isolate in this strange place? Why is my sweat being sold as elixir? And how have I become so enmeshed with works, mere works, phantoms?

Writers when they’re writing live in a spooky, clamorous silence, a state somewhat like the advanced stages of prayer but without prayer’s calming benefits. A writer turns his back on the day and the night and its large and little beauties, and tries, like some half-witted demiurge, to fashion other days and nights with words. It’s absurd. Oh, it’s silly
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
playlists of the writing songs @ingridrojasc.bsky.social & I are devoted to these days 🎶 a good writing song can easily get 1000s of plays at The Ministry of Words, we’re taking applications for fall writing workshops, & scholarships are available for writers of color www.theministryofwords.com
Ingrid’s current writing songs on repeat

1. Maxime Denuc, "Infinite End"
2. Oliver Coates, "Backprint Radiation"
3. Raul Refree "Rompe Cinta"
4. Cello Octet Amsterdam, Arvo Part, "Summa"
5. Phillipp Rumsch, "No Hands Unstained'
6. Martin Brugger, "Downward Curving”
7. nonkeen, "The Invention Mother"R. O. Kwon’s current writing songs on repeat 

1. Kate Bush, "Running Up That Hill"
2. Tracy Chapman, "Fast Car"
3. Florence + The Machine, "Sky Full of Song" 
4. Sharon Van Etten, "Like I Used to" (also good for a brief dance break while writing)
5. Pérotin, The Hilliard Ensemble, "Viderunt omnes"
6. Gustav Mahler, Christian Gerhaher & Geraold Huber, "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen"
7. Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington, "It Don't Mean a Thing"
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
& here are the images again with the alt text xx
R. O. Kwon
writing desk essentials

1. Laptop  
2. Hand sanitizer in case I need to touch my face or eyes while writing
3. Nothing ever on the walls
4. Lamp I turn on only while I’m writing fiction
5. Quart-sized Mason jar for room-temperature water, any smaller is too small
6. Coffee mug made by a friend, used only while writing fiction, plus a straw
7. Noise-canceling earphones
8. Chair where I can rest my feet
9. Blackout blinds, I don't want to see sunlight while I'm writing
10. Space heater below my desk, San Francisco is usually cold
11. Small najeonchilgi box—lacquered mother-of-pearl—from Moonji, my Korean publisher. Inside: pens, lip balm, mother’s jade rings
12. A book that’s helping my novel: in this case, SECOND SPACE by Czeslaw Milosz, tr. with Robert Hassphoto of a desk with a laptop, book, mug, lamp, and other materials described under the previous image of R. O. Kwon's writing desk essentialsIngrid Rojas Contreras
writing desk essentials

1. Laptop 
2. Acrylic box: with a whale bone inside it and also SECRETS
3. A candle
4. A long to-do/scratch pad with a zebra pencil I got in Mexico
5. Nono’s curandero business card, framed
6. Post-its to keep track of essential questions I am trying to edit for in novel draft I am working on
7. Leaf from Gabriel García Marquez’s beautiful Mexico house
8. Photos of eclipse series by Linda Connor, framed from one of her books (not originals, sadly, tho someday!)
9. A golden strip of fancy wallpaper I bought to “try out” in my room, the single long strip was always the plan
10. Lamp I made out of Nabokov’s unfinished book, The Original of Laura, from instructions I found on the internet :)
11. Rose quartz
12. Noise-canceling headphonesphoto of a desk with a laptop, headphones, box, and other materials described under the previous image of Ingrid Rojas Contreras's writing desk essentials
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
went into detail on writing desk essentials! Here’s everything @ingridrojasc.bsky.social & I need* at our desks for writing to happen ☺️ we’re taking applications at The Ministry of Words for fall workshops, there are just a few seats left so we’ve opened a third workshop theministryofwords.com
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
so tired of being sad & angry but last week i made friends with this beautiful creature. i think he’s bigger than i am. anytime my attention strayed away from him for half a moment he nudged me like “excuse me, what could possibly be more important than cuddling me,” & he was right. a perfect being
a gorgeous very large white dog putting his head on a pant-clad leg
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
how it works: 1. reserve a hotel room with a hilton that is a-okay with hosting ice 2. hold that rsv until the cancellation date 3. …at which point you realize oh you can’t go because the roads are icy! alas ❄️ 4. then perhaps you do it all over again action.sunrisemovement.org/a/shutdownhi...
We are targeting these 7 Hilton Minneapolis locations with confirmed ICE presence: 

Home2Suites by Hilton, Minneapolis University, 2808 Univeristy Ave SE. (612) 473-4662

Hilton Minneapolis Airport, 3800 American Blvd E (952) 854-2100

Hampton Inn Eagan, 3000 Eagandale Place, (651) 688-3343

Hilton Garden Inn, Minneapolis Airport-MOA, 1601 American Blvd E (952) 854-1687

Home2Suites Egan, 3939 Cedar Grove Pkwy (612) 567-5810

Home2Suites Brooklyn Park, 9490 W Broadway (763) 567-5810

Doubletree Roseville, 2540 Cleveland Ave (651) 636-4567
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
🌞 a @sunrisemvmt.bsky.social call for nationwide help with MN! a quick useful thing you & i can do from anywhere: make a hotel reservation at hilton in MN then cancel it 🌞 & it’s simple & it’s what they deserve & it’s funny & it’s effective action.sunrisemovement.org/a/shutdownhi...
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
five calls makes it easy to call your reps, it takes mere minutes & they provide a script. you can call about ice’s murder of renee nicole good, a fellow writer & poet. you can call about venezuela apps.apple.com/us/app/5-cal...
text from the app linked, including “stop ice’s aggressive attacks on immigrants & citizens”text from the app linked
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
this Friday!! we’re having an info session for The Ministry of Words, our new teaching collective 🌱 if you have any questions for Fatimah Asghar, @ingridrojasc.bsky.social, or me, or if you just want to hear more, please contact us at trip.whitfield@gmail.com for the session link
The Ministry of Words
Info Session
1/9, 5pm PT / 8pm ET

poetry & screenwriting, Fatimah Asghar
fiction, R. O. Kwon
creative nonfiction, Ingrid Rojas Contreras
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
wrote about the usefulness of forcing myself to celebrate things! even & perhaps especially when i don’t feel like it open.substack.com/pub/rokwon/p...
I force myself to celebrate things
Or: sometimes I try to inhabit a joy I’m not capable of feeling, & sometimes it helps

R. O. Kwon
January 2, 2026
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
helloo friends we have an update to our teaching collective, The Ministry of Words: we’ve added a screenwriting class ✨ scholarships are available for writers of color & the new class will be taught by the formidable & Emmy-nominated Fatimah Asghar theministryofwords.com
graphic with class information available at theministryofwords.com
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
i wrote about why every year i skip family festivities & spend this day alone open.substack.com/pub/rokwon/p...
Spending this day alone with my dead

Or: on loving what’s absent when its presence is gone

In progress by R. O. Kwon

rokwon.substack.com

picture of a glass of whisky + shrimp-sea bass dim sum
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
in these letters, since readers & writers often have questions about process, & I love thinking about process, I’ll go deep on what I’m doing as I continue writing my in-progress novel 💌
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
late to the party but I started a Substack! 🫡 the first post is up, about the thought I reliably have anytime a plane jolts or the earth shakes & I suspect I might be about to die & what this has to do with novel-writing & the extreme usefulness of keeping records rokwon.substack.com
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
i violently don’t want to leave Seoul but i want to get back to my San Francisco life & friends & communities. a great blessing to feel so torn
gejang & kimchi & rice in black bowls and dishes
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
seoul breaking my heart with its beauty, the roofs striped white with the first snow of the season haven’t seen seoul looking like this since i was a little kid
handol roofs white with snow in seoul, people in the distance
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
💫 space for a shared online writing session that brings together all 3 classes on the weeks we’re not meeting 
💫 opportunities to form long-lasting community you can sign up for both semesters or just the spring by 1/20 theministryofwords.com
Who We Are

The Ministry of Words’ classes will be taught by Fatimah Asghar, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, and R. O. Kwon. We have taught at places including Stanford University, Saint Mary’s College, Scripps College, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Tin House Writers Workshop, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Community of Writers, and more.
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
we’ve been working on this for months—introducing a new teaching collective ✨ starting 2/4, Fatimah Asghar, @ingridrojasc.bsky.social, & I will offer generative & workshop-based classes! In fiction, nonfiction, & poetry! theministryofwords.com
The Ministry of Words

Introducing a new teaching collective

From award-winning writers Fatimah Asghar, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, & R. O. Kwon

Offering generative & workshop-based classes in fiction, poetry, & nonfiction starting Feb. 5

Apply by Jan. 20
theministryofwords.com
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
bay area friends, this will be so lovely—a party 12/3 raising funds for @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social & @litquake.org, two beloved organizations hit hard by NEA & NEH cuts hosted by daniel handler, @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social, jonathan escoffery, @ingridrojasc.bsky.social, & @alexismadrigal.bsky.social
image with info about a holiday party on 12/3, all info at the link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zyzzyva-litquake-holiday-party-tickets-1762020293129
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
hello from paris! here on a fellowship with the american library in paris to do research* *for my novel. not for doing crimes
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
this one means the world to me 😭 I’m a recipient of the @lambdaliterary.org Duggins Prize, an award that “honors LGBTQ-identified authors who have published multiple novels, built a strong reputation and following, and show promise to continue publishing high quality work for years to come”
R. O. Kwon and Carter Sickels Win the 2025 Jim Duggins Prize for PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
what luck that I can pursue learning more about “things that greatly interest me” & call it work 😭 www.interviewmagazine.com/art/for-the-...
I fell wildly, urgently in love with Gala Porras-Kim’s work in a Seoul museum, where I saw a replica she made of a sarcophagus held in the British Museum. Taking seriously the beliefs of ancient Egyptians, who built doors facing east to let the dead see the sunrise, Porras-Kim proposed that the British Museum turn their sarcophagus east and wrote a letter explaining why. “Since we cannot yet be certain of the mechanics of the afterlife,” she wrote, “we could consider the perpetual plans of the persons under your charge as a guide for their care and, as such, in their display.”
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 21/09/2025
in Seoul, I fell wildly in love with the work of Gala Porras-Kim, a Korean Colombian artist who imagines expansively beyond fights around museums’ return of artifacts often considered stolen who(!) is this brilliant person & how do I talk to her, I thought, & I’m grateful INTERVIEW let me do so
Interview

For the Artist
Gala Porras-
Kim, Sculpture
Is a Portal to
the Afterlife
By R.O. Kwon
September 19, 2025
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
delighted by these author baseball cards from @mcsweeneys.net, an ongoing series featuring writers including yours truly 💀
baseball card of an illustration of a korean woman with long black hair, text: r. o. kwon, national book critics circle john leonard finalist
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
jesus christ. getting an NEA fellowship 10 years ago changed my life. it meant so much. it helped a lot when, weeks later, my agent went out to editors with THE INCENDIARIES, written by an unknown first-time novelist. artists are eligible to apply again 10 years after getting an NEA. were eligible
Dear (R.O. (Reese) Kwon):

This is in reference to your recent application to the National Endowment for the Arts' FY 2026 Creative Writing Fellowships. The NEA has cancelled the FY 2026 Creative Writing Fellowships program. The Creative Writing category has been Withdrawn by the Agency and will not be reviewed. We recognize that receiving this news can be disappointing, especially after all the hard work and dedication you put into your application.
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
the perfect daikon wedges in the oden at this beloved san francisco izakaya always look to me like big old smiles
daikon & mushroom-fish cakes in a broth, with bowls in the background
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
o how i love san francisco in the summer. hello to another deliciously chilly & windy & cloudy day, the gloom in me salutes the gloom in you
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
will be a 2025-2026 Visiting Fellow at the American Library in Paris!!! Going to work on & research my novel-in-progress, which involves a heist Paris friends, will be there this fall 🍂
Korean woman with long black hair in raincoat. Text: The American Library in Paris, 2025-2026 Visiting Fellow, R. O. KwonThe American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship was created in 2013 to nurture and sustain a heritage as old as the Library itself: deepening French-American understanding. 

The Fellowship offers writers, researchers, and creators the unique opportunity to spend a month in Paris working independently on their own creative project while contributing to the cultural life of the Library. 

In addition to working on their own project, Fellows present a public program during their residency that engages our audience and members around a central theme. The theme for 2025-2026 is Ways of Seeing, in line with the Library’s eponymous series exploring how literature and visual art inspire one another.
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
i signed this! thank you to the organizers 🫧 writers with published books & people who work in publishing, including agents, librarians, booksellers, illustrators, & more, y’all can also sign the letter here: lithub.com/against-ai-a...
Against AI: An Open Letter From Writers to Publishers

“We want our publishers to stand with us. To make a pledge that they will never release books that were created by machines.”
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
was most recently at @booksmith.bsky.social earlier in june to moderate a book event with the brilliant susan choi you can find their events schedule below, next up they have a book launch with the mighty @maris.bsky.social www.booksmith.com/event/2025-07
selfie with susan choi, two korean women smiling
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
EXHIBIT is out in paperback today!, with an updated cover 🖤 & here’s a banned-books fundraiser & lottery to mark this novel’s one-year birthday + www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/635517/exhibit-by-r-o-kwon
Korean woman with black glasses holding up a paperback copy of EXHIBIT by R. O. Kwon
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
a surprise this Asian American Pacific Islander month: I’m told I’m featured in a display of notable AAPI people at my beloved local co-op, Rainbow Grocery, along with Anna May Wong, Sinn Sisamouth, et al. 🪦 thank you to Rainbow cheesemonger Gordon Edgar for the literal heads-up!
pictures of two Asian women, both hanging from a colorful ceiling display, along with a red sign saying “Sinn Sisamouth, Cambodian, Artist, Singer-Songwriter”
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
& here are more details about what we’ll get into thank you to @katedwyer.bsky.social for putting this together
R.O. Kwon teaches
Writing into Fear: A Writing Workshop
Online session Wednesday, May 7 from 8pm to 10pm EST

Increasingly, I trust in fear as a kind of guidepost: I walk toward it by writing about what terrifies me, what I can barely stand to put on a page, making art about the secret things I can hardly tell myself. Or as Toni Morrison said: “I am so terrified of terror that I always go where it is—for worse than anything for me is not facing the fear. If something is disturbing to me, I shoot there as fast as I can. I cannot abide that ability to not abide in my own destiny. There’s no evasion. It’s very compelling to go directly to the source. What you fear—it’s always information." How might fear serve as a guidepost for what you want to write next? What to do with the anxiety and even panic that can arise while trusting in fear? This class will be lecture-based and generative, and you'll leave with strategies for how to work along and with your own fears. — R.O. Kwon
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
i’m teaching a one-day workshop with @mcnallyjackson.bsky.social this wednesday 🩷 the online class will be lecture-based & generative, 5-7pm PT / 8-10pm ET www.mcnallyjackson.com/writing-fear
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
wrote about undersea wine-aging, pedestrian-friendly superblocks, Catalan food, & architectural extravagance. I love this city so much
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
went to Barcelona & wrote about it for Travel + Leisure, & the piece is out in this month’s issue
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
with thanks to editor @laurenachristensen.bsky.social 🖤
“Goddess Complex” is astute about the repetitiveness of misery, and how pain can accrete like an enclosing wall, rising to block out the rest of the world. As Sanjana’s desperation builds, so do the grievances of those she loves. She masturbates to online real estate listings (“I set a minimum total price of $750,000”), and disrupts a friend’s baby shower by getting high and yelling the word “abortion.” Her sister kicks her out after she has sex with a 24-year-old in the backyard, captured on the security camera for Sanjana’s 7-year-old niece to see. (She even allowed the 24-year-old to urinate on her sister’s tomato garden, having heard that urine helps tomatoes grow.)
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
a joy to review Sanjena Sathian’s new novel, Goddess Complex, for the @nytbooks.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/b...
FICTION
After an Abortion and a Separation, a 30-Something Flails Toward Adulthood
The novel “Goddess Complex,” by Sanjena Sathian, takes a sharp turn from an existential crisis into a more literal one.If you’re a woman in America and you don’t want children — and if you’re honest about this when people ask — then you might be excessively familiar with the common follow-up opinions, questions, warnings. You’ll change your mind. What does your partner think? You’re wrong. You’ll regret it; once you come to your senses, it could be too late.

Part of what can be striking about such rebuttals, over time, is how little they vary. It can feel as if the people claiming they know you better than you do are reciting lines from an immensely popular, age-old guide to life. Somehow, you’ve never read it: If you did, it probably still wouldn’t be for you. But how did so many people get their
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
(I mean I have other loves I suppose, including the writing I suppose, but my love of lifting is so beautifully uncomplicated, much unlike anything having to do with writing)
time I hit a personal record, nothing can negate the new triumph. It happened; it’s a fact, established. Before long, I’ll push a little higher.

Such thrills are difficult to obtain in the rest of my life, much of which is dictated by writing. I am, to date, a slow writer—my debut novel took ten years. My second, nine. There was overlap between those years, but still. Upon finishing a book draft, I feel no sense of accomplishment: there are so many more to go. Meanwhile, as is true for any number of artists, my well-being is predicated on that of my writing. The first depends on the second. I think sometimes of what Honoré de Balzac said when he ran into his writer friends at the end of a day. He didn’t inquire how they were doing; instead, he asked if they’d worked well that day, since, if they said yes, it necessarily followed that his friends were thriving.
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
thank you so much to editor Kaitlyn Greenidge, & ty to @tonytula.com for suggesting I try out lifting in the first place
Accordingly, the threat of injury flits close. Every time I lift a barbell, I’m incapable of thinking beyond what my body is doing. How’s my core—did I square my scapulas—how’s my grip—are my shoulders rounding—what about my back—use my legs—push my feet into the ground. Core, grip, shoulders, back, legs, feet, I tell myself, time and again, circling around a ritual that seems to expand with each reprise. The ritual defines a charmed ring, an idyll, in which I have not a thing to do but inhabit a body, this bundle of muscle and skin going so far past what I thought to be its limits.
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
I wrote for Harper’s Bazaar about my true love, power-lifting! & why one of the only ways I can find calm is by risking physical injury 🏋🏻‍♀️ www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/feat...
Power Lifting Made Me a Better Writer
Strength training became an artistic practice for one best-selling novelist

BY R.O. KWONPUBLISHED: FEB 26, 2025
bookmarksO One of the only ways I can find calm is by risking injury. I began learning this when, years ago, I tried rock-climbing. Bouldering, that is, which doesn’t involve rope and harnesses. Scaling 17-foot walls with no backup rope, balancing all my weight on a toe and two fingers, knowing that if I fall badly I might break a bone or worse—I hadn’t known my otherwise anxious, restless mind could get this quiet from anything so relatively available as a gym sport.

For several years, I climbed as often as I could. But that proximity to physical harm did come, at times, with real injury. I
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
oh hi thank you so much @nytimes.com for recommending Kink in your Valentine’s Day gift guide 🫀🖤 www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/g...
The 24 Best Last-Minute Valentine’s Day Gifts
Updated February 13, 2025

Photo: Marki Williams
Mari Uyehara
Samantha Schoech
By Mari Uyehara and Samantha SchoechTitillating tales


Kink: Stories

Featuring work by Roxane Gay and Alexander Chee, among others, this short fiction anthology is a romp through wide-ranging experiences with sex.

As this anthology’s name suggests, the literary short fiction collected here examines love and desire, through journeys across bedrooms and therapists’ offices, modern sex clubs, and a 20th century Parisian sex theater. Edited by writers R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell and featuring
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
my grandmother wanted me to take her furniture & i was very glad to do so & as you can see the overall koreanness of my apartment has dramatically intensified
jagae furniture, black & mother-of-pearl
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
IMMEMORIAL by @laurenmarkham.bsky.social is out at last & it is brilliant, fortifying, exactly an antidote I’ve needed for these past weeks’ poison 🖤🌱 www.transitbooks.org/books/immemo...
cover of Lauren Markham’s book Immemorial, with pink trees on a green background
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R. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
if you haven’t used the app, here’s how it works: 1. you put in your city 2. the app pulls up some of the day’s pressing issues, & you pick the one(s) you want to address 3. the app pulls up a script & patches you through to the relevant rep(s) it can take like 2-3 minutes
screenshot of the 5 calls app landing page, with possible issues to address
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