choitotheworld.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE:<\/strong> Mary, where were you born, where did you grow up, and how would you describe those days?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
MARY H. K. CHOI:<\/strong> I was born in Seoul, Korea, but moved with my family to Hong Kong when I was eleven months old. From there I moved to San Antonio, Texas, the summer before my fourteenth birthday. Moving to Texas was such a trip. I\u2019d never seen such an expanse of sky before in my life! Coming from a city that was always lit up with neon lights and skyscrapers, I\u2019d never experienced such all-encompassing thunderstorms and I\u2019d never seen a shooting star. That\u2019s the biggest thing that struck me about Texas, the heaviness of the sky on my shoulders. Still, I missed the public transportation of Hong Kong and walking around everywhere, so I moved to New York right after college and I\u2019ve been there ever since.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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You graduated from UT Austin and went to New York and pretty much tapped into every possible medium while lassoing the zietgeist \u2014 including stints as a columnist for Wired<\/em>,<\/span> as an editor for MTV Style,<\/span> and as a contributing writer for Allure<\/span><\/em>. You have also written for the New York Times,<\/span> New York, The Atlantic, Billboard,<\/span><\/em> and The Fader<\/em>.<\/span> What was your first big break as a writer?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nMy first big break in New York came when I became the editorial assistant for an art and lifestyle magazine called Mass Appeal<\/span><\/em> in Brooklyn. You wouldn\u2019t believe the number of times I hit refresh on that intern call-out. They\u2019d had an ad position open, so I kept my fingers crossed for an editorial position, and sure enough I was the first to apply. Working for an independent, pirate-ship style magazine was a wonderful experience. You get to try on all the hats, and so I fact-checked and helped editors and lent a hand on photo shoots and I got my first byline reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition of a Magazine book. I was lucky enough for work for some unbelievably generous and talented editors who kept me in the loop and referred me for other jobs. Still, it took being an assistant to an editor \u2014 managing travel, doing expenses and scheduling for almost four years \u2014 before I got my truly big break writing as much as I wanted, for a magazine I founded as editor-in-chief of Missbehave<\/span><\/em> magazine.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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You seem to have developed a special understanding of teenagers in the era of Snapchat et al. How are current teens different than you were as a teenager?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI reported on this for a lengthy feature in Wired<\/span> <\/em>because there was so much fanfare about how social media was the downfall of civilization and how it was irrevocably corrupting young minds. And while there is definitely a tie between social anxiety, depression, and how obsessively you check your feeds, I\u2019ve found that when you actually go talk to a real-life teen, they share a lot of the concerns and insecurities that I did when I was their age. The main difference is that the same deluge of headlines we\u2019re buried under now in 2018 is readily accessible to young people as well. The thing is, teens are a lot more dialed in to current events. I guess if you were being reductive you could say they\u2019re more \u201cwoke\u201d or whatever, but it\u2019s also that many of them are forced to be extremely realistic about their lives. College is staggeringly, demoralizingly expensive; the job market changes at a velocity that\u2019s scary. There\u2019s rampant nationalism, school shootings, and police violence that they read about all the time. But the fundamental stuff \u2014 do I get along with my parents, do my friends like me, what college am I going to get into \u2014 all of that is very familiar since time immemorial.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Your debut book \u2014 fittingly, a YA novel \u2014 has been excerpted on EW.com, received a starred review in Publishers Weekly<\/em>, prompted an interview in the New York Times<\/em>,<\/span> and has generated a heckuva lot of buzz in publications that are too hip for me to know. Can you tell us about the book? What inspired the novel and what would you like our readers to know about it?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI love the way technology bridges these liminal spaces of intimacy. It\u2019s incredible that through emoji I can be more emotive with my father, who\u2019s been a scary patriarch my whole life but is not above sending me an emoji with the heart eyes. I love that. I also love the way that texting is sometimes seen as \u201cless than\u201d or a throwaway as far as the hierarchy of communication goes, but that it can also be everything. I wanted to explore how a romance would play out with this kind of amazing elasticity of meaning and import. I fell wildly, maddeningly in love with someone over text. It was magical. But it\u2019s like those trompe-l\u2019oeil images of: Is it a vase or two faces in profile? It was an awesome experience but it so easily could have been also been a one hundred percent Catfish heartbreak.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Do you prefer short-form journalism, essays, columns, think pieces, or long-form writing as in novels?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m fully in long-form mode right now. I love the vigor of it. The pace. The scariness of falling into the void. It\u2019s such a heady space to know that you have to commit 80,000 words to a single effort. The thing that I don\u2019t miss (and I\u2019ll probably regret saying this when I need the checks again) is that I don\u2019t miss writing reviews or critiquing a project based on an hour sitting across from a person who\u2019s in it. Now that I\u2019ve crossed into the creating space the thought of levying a \u201cverdict\u201d on a work is discomfiting to me.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Did you always want to be a writer? What kinds of books did you read growing up?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI don\u2019t know that I necessarily wanted to be a writer. I didn\u2019t know any writers growing up, so it wasn\u2019t something that I thought I could be. That\u2019s why representation is so important. It grants you permission to dream in all directions. That said, I\u2019ve always loved stories so much. I was mad over fables and fairy tales like Hans Christian Andersen and Korean folklore. I also loved coming-of-age books of any kind. Judy Blume books galore like Deenie, Are You There God, It\u2019s Me Margaret, Tiger Eyes.<\/em> I also loved The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 \u00be<\/em>, Flossie Teacake\u2019s Fur Coat<\/em>. I also went through a huge VC Andrews phase.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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In interviews you talk a lot about love and art and how they influence each other. What have you learned about that phenomenon in your almost four decades on the planet? Have you read any books on these kinds of topics that have influenced you or that you’d suggest?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nThis is such a huge question so I\u2019m going to answer a different one. I think you have to love your art. That\u2019s what I can say about it. It can\u2019t be a white-knuckled, slavish dedication forever. I feel like there has to be an intrinsic curiosity and a joy that comes with unlocking aspects of the work that you can feel okay dedicating the rest of your life to. Not to say that it\u2019s not grueling. It\u2019s just that the finite, end result can\u2019t be the only goal. There has to be some pleasure and fascination in getting there.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Are you working on a new project, and can you tell us about it?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nYes! My editor and publisher have my next book and part of the one after that. All I\u2019ll reveal (which isn\u2019t revealing too much) is that they\u2019re both contemporaries and the first one involves social media a ton.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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As someone whose adolescence was spent in Texas, you must remember and\/or miss something about the state?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nThe way it smells before a storm. Real queso. The bark on a well-executed brisket. I miss my family the most, but I got to say stopping by a Buc-ee\u2019s is a close second. I miss my friends too.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Last question: What’s in your To Be Read pile on your nightstand?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s not on my nightstand. It\u2019s long since migrated to a teetering pile on the floor\u2014A Reaper at the Gates <\/em>by Sabaa Tahir, Stay Sweet<\/em> by Siobhan Vivian, From Twinkle With Love <\/em>by Sandhya Menon, Lauren Groff\u2019s Florida<\/em>, Leah on the Offbeat<\/em> by Becky Albertalli, Sheila Heti\u2019s Motherhood<\/em>, Tommy Orange\u2019s There There<\/em>, The Beauty That Remains <\/em>by Ashley Woodfolk, and so many more. Plus, I just finished I Can\u2019t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race and Other Reasons I Put My Faith in Beyonc\u00e9<\/em> by Michael Arceneux (also from Texas\u2014Houston stand up!). And I\u2019m so greedy that even with this huge pile I\u2019m positively bereft that I have to wait until October to add Tahereh Mafi\u2019s A Very Large Expanse of the Sea.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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Praise for Mary H. K. Choi\u2019s EMERGENCY CONTACT<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cMary H.K Choi\u2019s Emergency Contact<\/span><\/em> is one of the best debuts of the year and one of the first YA novels to really capture the depth and complexities of a text-based relationship.\u201d \u2014Globe and Mail<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cChoi sensitively shows the evolution of two lonely, complicated people who slowly emerge from their shells to risk an intimate relationship. Her sharp wit and skillful character development…ensure that readers will feel that they know Penny and Sam inside and out before the gratifying conclusion.\u201d
\u2014Publisher’s Weekly<\/span> <\/em>(starred review)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSmart and funny, with characters so real and vulnerable, you want to send them care packages. I loved this book.\u201d \u2014Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times<\/span><\/em> bestselling author of Fangirl<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cChoi creates an up-to-date and realistic contemporary romance by upending the love story trope….A highly recommended purchase for the teens who enjoy realistic relationship fiction. Recommended for fans of Nicola Yoon\u2019s Everything, Everything<\/span><\/em> and Rainbow Rowell\u2019s Eleanor & Park<\/span><\/em>.\u201d
\u2014School Library Journal<\/em>,<\/span> starred review<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cReaders will swoon over Emergency Contact<\/span><\/em>. Choi has a knack for creating relatable characters, and this quirky, socially awkward love story will keep your cheeks rosy with every page…. Emergency Contact<\/span><\/em> is the perfect book for those who root for the underdog and believe that broken people can heal together.\u201d
\u2014RT Book Reviews<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cBlushingly tender and piquant…Choi… inserts timely issues like sexual assault, cultural appropriation and even DACA into her characters\u2019 intimate conversations, but it is her examination of digital vs. F2F communication that feels the most immediate.\u201d \u2014New York Times<\/em> Book Review<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cReaders who enjoyed the unorthodox evolution of romance in Nicola Yoon\u2019s Everything, Everything<\/span><\/em> (2015) will like this debut novel.\u201d
\u2014Booklist<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cPenny somehow broke down all my walls. Her tech became incidental and her voice endearing, and just like that, I was hooked. Even the texts feel very natural and elegantly woven into the narration. There is much more to both Sam and Penny than quirky character traits and witty repartee….While the story does traffic in the heart flutter of romance that is tantalizingly out of reach, its emotional core goes deep.\u201d
\u2014NPR<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWhip-smart, hilarious and poignant…Choi’s prose is to be savored….Along with the biting wit and sharp observations, Choi’s marvelous novel offers a perceptive exercise on the divide between digital and in-person communication \u2014 and how daunting it can be to \u2018escalate\u2019 to that face to face encounter.\u201d \u2014Buffalo News<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cA tender, texting-based teen romance.\u201d \u2014Entertainment Weekly<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n* * * * *<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interview with Texas-raised YA author<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[875,810,1021,813],"class_list":["post-1256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-interview","tag-lone-star-listens","tag-lonestarlit","tag-lone-star-literary-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}