On consumption and myth with Gina Chung

This month's podcast is an early release in celebration of the publication of Gina Chung's new story collection, Green Frog. We discuss consuming boyfriends, Korean folk tales, and self-made myths.

Almost two years ago I got a life changing phone call as I walked with my older brother to the library in our hometown. It was from an Atlanta phone number, and while I usually don’t answer unknown numbers, something in me told me I should pick up this call.

On the other end was Randy Winston, the Director of Writing Programs at The Center for Fiction letting me know I had been selected as one of the fellows for that year. Within weeks, I was upstairs meeting the outgoing cohort and standing alongside my fellow…fellows.

One of the outgoing fellows was Gina Chung, a writer whose newly published novel Sea Change I was excited to discover featured the bond between a grieving child and a nonhuman animal with reverence. I was equally excited to learn she had a story collection on the way that deepened these animal themes.

Green Frog is the latest from Chung, out tomorrow with events happening around the city. The collection explores Korean American womanhood, bodies, animals, and transformation as a means of survival. It’s been named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Elle, Debutiful, The Rumpus, The Millions.

from Penguin Random House

Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in New York City. She is the author of the novel SEA CHANGE (Vintage, March 28, 2023; Picador, April 13, 2023 in the Commonwealth and in the UK on August 10, 2023), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, an Asian/Pacific American Award for Adult Fiction Honor, a 2023 B&N Discover Pick, and a New York Times Most Anticipated Book, and the short story collection GREEN FROG (Vintage, March 12, 2024; out in the UK/Commonwealth from Picador on June 6, 2024). A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School's Creative Writing Program and a BA in literary studies from Williams College. Her work appears or is forthcoming in One Story, BOMB, The Kenyon Review, Literary Hub, Catapult, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Idaho Review, The Rumpus, Pleiades, and F(r)iction, among others. Her stories have been recognized by the American Short(er) Fiction Contest, the Black Warrior Review Contest, the Los Angeles Review Literary Awards, the CRAFT Elements Contest, and the Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest, as well as named Longform Fiction Pick of the Week.​

Photo credit: S.M. Sukardi

You can listen to our conversation for free on the following platforms:

Apple, Amazon, IHeartRadio, Spotify, YouTube, GooglePodcasts, RadioPublic

In the episode, we joke about anthropomorphizing household objects, the hope hidden in sad stories, solo dates to the museum, and nonhuman animals as essential connections in human lives. In honor of the Korean folk tale the collection is named for, this month’s doodle features a daring frog, which I hope inspires you to go for whatever it is you are after, to wonder where in your life you might need to call in some disobedience.