Award-winning, acclaimed debut novelist Jinwoo Park spoke to me about breaking out of a creative rut, writing as “self-therapy,” cracking the #BookTok code, and his literary espionage thriller OXFORD SOJU CLUB

Jinwoo Park is a Korean Canadian writer based in Montreal. He completed a master's degree in creative writing at the University of Oxford, and currently works as a marketer in the tech industry.

His first novel, Oxford Soju Club, is a literary espionage thriller exploring themes of identity and the Korean diaspora. Park's manuscript for Oxford Soju Club won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers' Award in 2021.

A Booklist starred review wrote of the book, “In stylistically rich prose, the author carefully portrays complex characters, distilling the intricate workings of the Korean psyche with riveting tension. Under the cover of a compelling espionage drama…”

Jinwoo is also a literary translator and received the LTI Korea Translation Award for Aspiring Translators in 2023. 

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In this file Jinwoo Park and I discussed:

How his notes from "self-therapy" became a breakout book

Posting to TikTok every day to build a following

Sharing a name with a character from K-Pop Demon Hunters

In rewriting his debut novel five times to distill it to its essence

What authenticity means to him

And a lot more!

Show Notes:

jinwoo-park.com 

Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park (Amazon)

Jinwoo Park on Instagram

Jinwoo Park on TikTok

Jinwoo Park on Twitter

Kelton Reid on Twitter

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