This week’s installment of Ten Questions features Juhea Kim, whose debut story collection, A Love Story From the End of the World, is out today from Ecco. The book brings together ten tales of people looking for connection in hostile environments. Several stories take place in landscapes rewritten by climate change and degraded by human use, including a “New Seoul” protected from violent sandstorms by a giant biodome and an island transformed into a mountain of landfill. Ash Davidson praised A Love Story From the End of the World for offering “both an unsettling glimpse at what climate change might mean for our planet, and a vision of the transcendent moments of beauty and human connection that make it possible to survive in a changing world.” Publishers Weekly wrote that “Kim excels at revealing the far-reaching and destabilizing effects of traumatic events on her characters.” Juhea Kim is the author of two novels: Beasts of a Little Land (Ecco, 2021), winner of the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award and finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and City of Night Birds (Ecco, 2024), a Reese’s Book Club pick. Born in Korea and raised in Portland, Oregon, Kim now lives in London.
Juhea Kim, author of A Love Story From the End of the World. (Credit: Jack Lee)
1. How long did it take you to write A Love Story From the End of the World?
The collection comprises ten stories written between 2015 and 2024. Each story took a few, intense days to write and then some more time later to edit.
2. What was the most challenging thing about writing the book?
Not feeling like anyone is waiting for my stories. Five stories were written before I sold my debut novel, so there wasn’t anyone lining up to read my stories. And then after my first two novels were published and warmly received, I still heard feedback that “no one wants to read short stories.” So it took courage to stay true to my creative instincts against external pressure. At the end of the day, everything in the world is catering to the market’s demand except art. Art is following your soul’s demand.
3. Where, when, and how often do you write?
I can write in pretty adverse conditions. Recently I did some very good work while stranded at Heathrow airport—I was so angry that words were just flying off my fingertips. But my ideal day looks like this: no publicity or admin tasks, no deadlines, free calendar, writing all day in bed with my cats.
4. What are you reading right now?
Getting Away (Zaffre, 2025) by Kate Sawyer and The Sisters (FSG, 2025) by Jonas Hassen Khemiri.
5. Which author, in your opinion, deserves wider recognition?
I just finished reading a shockingly good novel: Old Town by Korean author Um Oo-hm. It’s a magical realist parable that takes place in an impoverished village outside of Seoul. I just love a virtuosic performance by a writer—this is what I look for as a reader, and try to deliver as a writer myself. I don’t think Old Town has been translated into English yet, and he’s not as well-known as he deserves. I hope that’s remedied soon.
6. What is the earliest memory that you associate with the book?
Spring 2015, I spent a weekend in my New York City apartment writing a story based on the idea of yellow. That became the opening story “Biodome.” I thought it would be a great idea to develop a collection of ecological stories, each of which is inspired by a color.
7. What is one thing that surprised you during the writing of A Love Story From the End of the World?
I was surprised by my profound emotional responses to the stories: I found them incredibly funny, chilling, and tragic, sometimes all within one story. I loved being able to evoke such a multitude of emotions within a tight frame, and the short story form was the perfect vehicle for this effect.
8. If you could go back in time and talk to the earlier you, before you started writing the book, what would you say?
Believe in yourself.
9. Outside of writing, what other forms of work were essential to the creation of A Love Story From the End of the World?
I saw this not just as a book, but as a multimedia artwork, so I’ve been working on a series of oil paintings inspired by the stories. I pitched the idea to use these as interior illustrations and among my main international publishers, only my Korean publisher Dasan agreed. I’m really looking forward to that edition realizing the complete creative vision for this project.
10. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever heard?
Make the readers care about your characters. You can have beautiful prose, world building, plot and so on, but if readers are not invested in the characters’ journey, then they will stop reading. And always keep in mind what they are reading to find out.
