Interview with Linda Sue Park
by Aline Pereira*

Linda Sue Park, the daughter of Korean immigrants, has been writing poems and stories since she was four years old. Before dedicating herself to writing books for children, she earned degrees from universities in California and Great Britain, worked as a food journalist, and taught English as a Second Language.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2002 Newbery Medal for her book, A Single Shard (Clarion, 2001). Her most recent novel, Archer's Quest, is out this month in the US, by Clarion.

She lives with her family in Rochester, New York.
.............................................................................................................

Your picture books  and novels have been the recipients of much critical acclaim. Can you tell us a little about how your decision to start writing children's books came about?

Probably because I have always loved reading books for young people. Middle-grade fiction is one of my favorite genres—as a child of course, but now as well. I don't recall making a conscious decision: I started writing a story, and by the time I finished it had the pace and structure of a middle-grade novel. It's the genre I'm most comfortable with.

But I love reading all over the map, and therefore I enjoy writing in many different genres, both adult and children's.

You display such command of Korean history and culture in your historical novels... Do people often assume you are an expert on the subject? Did you know from the start that Korean culture would be the base of so much of your work?

People do often assume that I'm an expert, which makes me uncomfortable. I am not a historian or an academic—I'm a storyteller. And when I first started writing for young people, I had no idea that so much of my work would be based on Korean history. As I did the research, I kept discovering fascinating things that explained so much about the way I grew up. I knew a great deal about Korean culture from my family of course, but I knew relatively little about the country's history. My childhood began to make more sense to me as I explored Korea's past.

A simple example: most Korean families are fanatical about education, to the point where it has become a stereotype, the Korean kid who's an excellent student, the parents who encourage and urge and push the child. My family was like this. Then I learned in my research that during the Chosun era in Korea, passing the civil-service examinations was just about the only way a young man could rise above the circumstances of his birth. If he wanted a job better than the one his father had, he had to take a series of grueling examinations and get top marks in order to obtain a government posting.

This system was in place for hundreds of years, so it became ingrained in the mentality of Korean parents. Of course many cultures place a high emphasis on education, but in my case, it was fascinating to learn the details specific to Korea. No wonder my parents were so focused on my grades—and it wasn't entirely their fault! It was history's fault too!

When did you first visit Korea, and what was it like?

I first visited Korea in 1972, when I was twelve years old. The reason for the trip was a bittersweet one for me and my family. A cousin of mine had lived with us for almost two years since his infancy, and we were making the trip to return him to his family. So the separation from this little boy, whom I had come to think of as my baby brother, was foremost on my mind. However, I later found that Korea had made a deep impression on me. My aunt still lived in a traditional house at the time. We visited my grandfather's gravesite. Family—even distant relations—came to see us. I remembered these things and more when I began to write my stories.

Your newest book, Archer's Quest, is about a time-traveling archer, from a centuries-old Korean kingdom, and a young boy named Kevin, who must help him find his way back to the past, where he belongs. What motivated you to bring a character from ancient Korea to a modern-day America setting?

My first four novels were historical fiction. Then I wrote a contemporary story, Project Mulberry.  I guess you could say it felt natural for me to combine the two!

With Archer's Quest, I wanted to try writing a novel based on some of the traditional Korean folk tales. I chose the tales about Koh Chu-mong, a revered archer and king of Korea; once I had decided on these, I thought it would be fun to make it a time-travel story. Kevin has to teach the archer-king about the wonders of the modern world, and the archer tells Kevin about life in ancient Korea, including three well-known folk tales about his own life. Hopefully readers will find a lot of humor, action and adventure in the book.

During the time they spend together, Kevin and the archer-king learn a lot about each other and eventually become friends. I want readers to enjoy the story, but after they're finished reading, if they decide to think about the question of how it could be said that there is really no 'present'—just the future becoming the past all the time—they'd be thinking about what I was thinking when I wrote the story.

In your book, Project Mulberry (Clarion, 2005), Korean-American Julia Song deals with many things: science, friendship, unspoken prejudices... She is working with her neighbor Patrick on a silkworm-raising science project for the state fair—worried that it's "too Korean"— when Mr. Dixon, who is a black man, turns out to be the only person in town who can provide their worms with mulberry leaves—the only kind that will produce silk. Julia must then try to grasp the reason behind her own discomfort with the project and the seeming intolerance her mother displays toward Mr. Dixon. In your author's note you've stated: "Awareness and discussion [of the existing prejudice between Asian and blacks] are the first steps toward healing, and my hope is that this book might be one of those small steps." What sort of response have you been getting to the book?

I'm delighted with the response from readers so far. The book won the Chicago Tribune Young Adult Book Award last year and was a New York Public Library best books selection. Those honors were chosen by adult readers. The book is also on several state children's choice award lists for 2006-2007, which means I will be hearing about the book from many young readers over the next year—I'm looking forward to that!

Regarding race and racism, I was trying to explore certain ideas in the story without making them the central issue. Discussion of race in our culture, including in children's books, is often based on a large event—large either historically or personally. I wanted to show how race is a daily undercurrent in many people's lives, how we live with issues of race all the time and not just when it's in the headlines.

But, as with all of my work, I don't have the answers... I'm not looking for answers when I write, I'm looking for questions. What are the right questions we should be asking ourselves as we go through our daily lives? Stories are a way to help us discover the right questions, which is what I hope my books do for readers.

In Project Mulberry you also make use of an interesting device: the author's interaction with the main character. Are those really the internal dialogues you engage in when you're writing and getting to know your characters? At some point Julia complains of one thing or another in the way you're handling the storyline, and you, the author, answer: "I'm not always in control". To what extent is that true? Do stories usually take a life of their own, once you've committed to an idea?

In one sense, I'm always in control of course—I mean, I'm the one doing the typing! But those dialogues with Julia really did take place in my head and eventually began to feel like part of the story, which is why I decided to include them. I've been very pleased to hear from young readers who tell me that the dialogues are their favorite parts of the book.

The very act of writing—of choosing one word after another—often brings things to mind in a way that doesn't happen when I'm not at the keyboard. It's at those moments that it feels like the story itself is leading me, rather than the other way around. I'm afraid I don't have a better way of explaining it... but it's almost a magical feeling, and I do love when it happens!

On the issue of names and how they help shape our identity, I would like to talk about your book When My Name Was Keoko. It tells the story of a family in 1940's Korea, under Japanese occupation, obeying all the harsh laws, including the one that stated that all Koreans must take new Japanese names. Thus ten and thirteen-year-old siblings, Sun-hee and Tae-yul, became (or, rather, had to answer to) Nobuo and Keoko... You've dedicated the book to your parents, whose experiences in Korea during the war were the basis for the two main characters. Were your parents' names changed then? Have they changed again since arriving in the United States?

Yes, my parents names were indeed changed. My mom's Korean name is Joung Sook, which was changed to Keoko, and my dad's name is Eung Won, which became Nobuo: that is why I chose those very names for my story. Now my mom goes by her American name, Susie, and my dad is Ed. The book is dedicated to my parents using all of their names: Joung Sook / Keoko / Susie and Eung Won / Nobuo / Ed.

For me, those names condense their whole fascinating life story into a mere few words. They were given names, then forced to change them, and finally chose new ones for themselves. Each naming carried with it implications of family, history, individuality... colonialism and immigration... acceptance and choice. I don't know of any culture in which names are not important in one way or another—surely it's part of what makes us human.

What relevance and value do you believe books can offer children both in their own search for identity and in general?

I think of reading stories as practice for life. Whatever might happen to a person, a story has been written about it by someone, somewhere. Young people who read enough have been exposed to far more than their own realities. Reading enlarges the world and at the same time makes the human race more fathomable.

Which inspiring voices from around the Pacific, speaking to young readers today, would you recommend?

There are more all the time, I'm happy to say! A few of my favorites: novels by An Na, Laurence Yep, and Kazumi Yumoto... picture books by Ken Mochizuki, Allen Say, and Janet Wong...

What book projects are you looking forward to now?

I have a poetry collection for young people in the works. It's a collection of sijo, which is a traditional Korean verse form, comparable in some ways to Japanese haiku. It's in the process of being illustrated right now, so it won't be out for a year or two. I'm very excited about it—I can't wait till it's published!

*Aline Pereira is PaperTigers Managing Editor and Producer

Posted June 2006

back to top

about us | downloads | site map | search | testimonials | pt blog
©2006 Pacific Rim Voices