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Djuna is a science fiction writer and film critic, and a former chair of the Korean Science Fiction Writers Union. For some 30 years they have published as a faceless writer, refusing to reveal personal details regarding age, gender, or legal name. Widely considered to be one of South Korea's most important science fiction writers, Djuna has published numerous books of nonfiction, eight story collections, and seven novels, including their English-language debut, Counterweight. Everything Good Dies Here (Kaya Press, $19.95), translated by Adrian Thieret, is a collection of stories that blend influences ranging from genre fiction (zombie, vampire SF, you name it) to golden-age cinema to Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Handsell readers your book in 30 words or less:
It's a collection of stories about zombies in 19th-century Korea, a girl adopted by aliens, fictitious history slowly becoming reality, and humans traveling the galaxy aboard an alien spacecraft.
On your nightstand now:
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.
Labihem Police 2049 by Ae-jin Park. This is the first volume of the sci-fi high school romance novel series that I was a part of. It is meant to be a sequel of the original sci-fi high school romance manhwa, Labihem Police, which was published in the '80s and '90s.
Robot Dreams by Sara Varon.
Bruges-La-Morte by Georges Rodenbach. I recently saw The Dead City by Erich Korngold, an opera that dramatized this novel.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It provided me with a framework for an almost perfect adventure story. Even now, I consciously and subconsciously try to imitate this book.
Your top five authors:
Joanna Russ, Jeong-hui Oh (unfortunately, her reputation has drastically declined due to recent political controversies), James Tiptree Jr., Jorge Luis Borges, Patricia Highsmith.
This list can always change based on my daily mood.
Book you've faked reading:
I won't be faking it anymore if I confess now. When I was young, I pretended to have read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I thought I could do it since I had seen movie adaptations starring the likes of Vivien Leigh and Greta Garbo. After I read the novel, I was shocked at the expansive universe within the book that the movies could not encompass. To the people who had read the novel, my lie must have sounded awfully clumsy.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Gustave Flaubert. Many people seem to not even attempt to read it due to the entry barrier of it being a novel-length drama. However, this work provided me with the most overwhelming reading experience as a teenager. If I was a Westerner, I probably would have gone on to write a lengthy analogy comparing it to some form of narcotics.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Lion in the Living Room by Abigail Tucker. The American cover is cute as well, but you must see the Korean version.
Book you hid from your parents:
I never hid any books from my parents. I had a bookshelf that I could curate with no interference. Recently, I've been hiding a book in a drawer for a reason I do not know. It's a Japanese photobook that is not very sensational but a little creepy that I impulsively bought.
Book that changed your life:
Nightmares and Geezenstacks by Fredric Brown. I read it and thought, "I can also write a book in this genre." So, it indeed was life changing.
Favorite line from a book:
"No live organism can continue for long to exist under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream." --The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Five books you'll never part with:
Wave by Su-ji Lee
French Drama Edition in the World Literature Collection (published by Jeongeumsa), which includes the plays Cyrano de Bergerac, The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, and The Annunciation of Marie
Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb (published by Samjungdang)
Go-geum the Grain of Sand by So-cheun Kang
The Old Man in the Corner by Baroness Orczy
The list is mostly made for personal and sentimental reasons.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.