R. O. Kwon

R. O. Kwon
Kwon at AWP 2025
Born
Okyong Kwon

Seoul, South Korea
EducationYale University (BA)
Brooklyn College (MFA)
Writing career
Years active2017–present
Notable workThe Incendiaries
Notable awardsNEA Fellowship (2016)
Websitero-kwon.com
Korean name
Hangul
권오경
[1]
RRGwon Ogyeong
MRKwŏn Ogyŏng

R.O. Kwon, also known as Reese Okyong Kwon, is a South Korean and American author. In 2018, she published her debut novel The Incendiaries with Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Her second novel, Exhibit, was published in 2024.

Early life

Kwon was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Los Angeles, California, with her family when she was three years old.[2] She was raised in a Christian household but at the age of 17 experienced a crisis of faith and stopped believing in God.

She attended Yale University, where she majored in Economics.[3][4] She has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College.[5]

Career

Kwon's work has appeared in publications including The New York Times,[6] The Guardian,[7] The Paris Review,[8] BuzzFeed,[9] Vice,[10] New York Magazine's The Cut,[11] and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts,[12] Yaddo,[13] and MacDowell.[14]

In 2018, Kwon published her debut novel, The Incendiaries, about a woman who becomes involved with a cult of extremist Christians. The novel was inspired by Kwon's own loss of faith in God, and took 10 years to finish.[15][16][17] The Incendiaries was named a best book of the year by more than 40 publications and organizations,[18][19] including The Today Show, NPR, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, PBS Books, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, and elsewhere, and is being translated into seven languages.[20] Before the book's release, Kwon was featured as one of "4 writers to watch" by The New York Times.[21] The Incendiaries is an American Booksellers Association Indie Next #1 Great Read[22] and an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce Pick.[23] The novel received the Housatonic Book Prize,[24] and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award for Best First Book,[25] the Los Angeles Times First Book Prize,[26] and the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Prize.[27] In addition, the book has been nominated for the American Library Association Carnegie Medal[28] and Aspen Prize.[29]

Kink, a nationally bestselling anthology co-edited by Kwon and Garth Greenwell, was released by Simon & Schuster in 2021.[30][31] The anthology was a New York Times Notable Book of 2021.[32]

"Dynamic and imaginative, Kink ventures into the frontiers of boundary-pushing desires while upholding literary excellence. These fifteen short stories explore love and desire, BDSM, and interests across the sexual spectrum—it is a loud and proud celebration of themes sometimes deemed too taboo for public consumption." —Los Angeles Review of Books[33]

Her second novel, Exhibit, also a national bestseller, was published by Riverhead Books in 2024.[34] Jane Ciabattari at LitHub described the book as "an artfully crafted jewel highlighting the vulnerabilities, strengths, passions and ambitions of three Korean women."[35] The novel won the Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize from the Lambda Literary Awards in 2025.[36]

Personal life

In November 2018, Kwon revealed that she is bisexual.[37] The initials in her name stand for Reese, her English name, and Okyong, her Korean name. She publishes as R.O. Kwon.[38] Kwon lives in San Francisco, California, and "the long-term plan is to be here until climate change chases us out".[39]

Awards

YearTitleAwardCategoryResultRef.
2018 The Incendiaries Golden Poppy Book AwardFictionShortlisted
Los Angeles Times Book PrizeFirst FictionFinalist[40]
National Book Critics Circle Award First BookFinalist [25]
2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for ExcellenceFictionLonglisted[41]
Aspen Words Literary Prize—Longlisted[42]
2025 ExhibitJoyce Carol Oates Literary Prize—Longlisted[43]
Lambda Literary AwardDuggins Prize (Special Award)Won[36]

Bibliography

Novels

  • —— (2018). The Incendiaries (hardcover 1st ed.). Riverhead Books. ISBN 9780735213890.
  • —— (2024). Exhibit (hardcover 1st ed.). Riverhead Books. ISBN 9780593190029.

Anthologies (edited)

References

  1. ↑ "R. O. Kwon in Twitter".
  2. ↑ Kwon, R.O. (August 23, 2018). "The Mistake I Made at 'Crazy Rich Asians'". A Cup Of Jo. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
  3. ↑ Han, Jimin (June 6, 2018). "Interview with R.O. Kwon, Author of The Incendiaries". Hyphen. Archived from the original on September 16, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Shelf Life: R.O. Kwon". Elle. Retrieved 2026-06-18.
  5. ↑ Thomas, Monet Patrice (July 18, 2018). "We're All Unreliable Narrators: Talking with R.O. Kwon". The Rumpus. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  6. ↑ Kwon, R. O. (March 23, 2019). "Opinion | Stop Calling Asian Women Adorable". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
  7. ↑ Kwon, R. O. (June 29, 2017). "Blind Spot by Teju Cole review – a writer's photographs". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  8. ↑ Kwon, R. O. (January 7, 2019). "On Being a Woman in America While Trying to Avoid Being Assaulted". The Paris Review. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  9. ↑ Kwon, R.O. (February 16, 2018). "I'm Korean American, And I Can't Watch The Pyeongchang Olympics". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  10. ↑ Kwon, R. O. (September 25, 2017). "The Clown from 'IT' Reminded Me of God, and I Loved Him". Vice. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  11. ↑ Kwon, R. O. (April 6, 2018). "Why I Don't Leave the House Without Putting on Black Eye Shadow". The Cut.
  12. ↑ "R. O. Kwon". NEA. May 30, 2018. Archived from the original on December 7, 2018. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Writers". Yaddo. September 11, 2016. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  14. ↑ "2017 MacDowell Fellows Announced". PublishersWeekly.com. September 14, 2017. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  15. ↑ Fassler, Joe (July 24, 2018). "A Writer's Fixation on Sound". The Atlantic. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  16. ↑ Beckley, Sarah (July 31, 2018). "Novelist R.O. Kwon on Losing Her Religion". elle.com. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
  17. ↑ Winnette, Colin (July 24, 2018). "Grief That Drives: R.O. Kwon by Colin Winnette - BOMB Magazine". bombmagazine.org. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  18. ↑ "The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  19. ↑ "'At the Center': Interview with R.O. Kwon". Indiana Review. March 2, 2019. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  20. ↑ "Foreign Editions". R.O. Kwon. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  21. ↑ de León, Concepción (June 9, 2018). "4 Writers to Watch This Summer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  22. ↑ Button, Liz (July 16, 2018). "A Q&A With R.O. Kwon, Author of August's #1 Indie Next List Pick". the American Booksellers Association. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
  23. ↑ "Indies Introduce Summer Fall 2018". the American Booksellers Association. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  24. ↑ "Housatonic Book Awards". Housatonic Book Awards. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  25. 1 2 "National Book Critics Circle: Announcing the Finalists for the John Leonard Award for Best First Book - Critical Mass Blog". www.bookcritics.org. Archived from the original on December 12, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  26. ↑ Schaub, Michael (February 20, 2019). "L.A. Times Book Prize finalists include Michelle Obama and Susan Orlean; Terry Tempest Williams receives lifetime achievement award". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  27. ↑ "Book Awards". Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. Archived from the original on November 11, 2019. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
  28. ↑ "Andrew Carnegie Medals Longlist | Awards & Grants". www.ala.org. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  29. ↑ Mayer, Petra (November 19, 2018). "Exclusive: 'Friday Black,' 'There There' And More Longlisted For Aspen Words Prize". NPR.org. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  30. ↑ Kwon, R. O.; Greenwell, Garth (February 9, 2021). Kink. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-9821-1021-5.
  31. ↑ "'Kink' Is Not a Book About Sex. It's a Book About, Well, Kink". The New York Times. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  32. ↑ "100 Notable Books of 2021". The New York Times. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  33. ↑ ""Kink" ed. by R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  34. ↑ "Exhibit by R.O. Kwon". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  35. ↑ "R.O. Kwon on Writing Her Way Into a Book's Most Truthful Version". LitHub. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
  36. 1 2 "R. O. Kwon and Carter Sickels Win the 2025 Jim Duggins Prize for PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize". lambdaliterary.org. Retrieved 2026-06-18.
  37. ↑ Rich, Kaelyn (November 9, 2018). "Korean-American Bestselling Author R.O. Kwon Is Bisexual, Has Flawless Signature Eyeshadow". Autostraddle. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  38. ↑ Ho, Olivia (September 25, 2018). "Writer R. O. Kwon putting her anguish into words". The Straits Times. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  39. ↑ Weir, Keziah (May 9, 2024). "R.O. Kwon Is Writing Into Desire". Vanity Fair. Retrieved May 19, 2024.
  40. ↑ Schaub, Michael (February 20, 2019). "L.A. Times Book Prize finalists include Michelle Obama and Susan Orlean; Terry Tempest Williams receives lifetime achievement award". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 10, 2025.
  41. ↑ "2019 Carnegie Medal Winners, Shortlist, & Longlist". American Library Association. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  42. ↑ "Aspen Institute Announces the Longlist for the 2019 Aspen Words Literary Prize". The Aspen Institute. November 19, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2025.
  43. ↑ "Joyce Carol Oates Prize Longlist Announced". New Literary Project. December 4, 2024. Retrieved May 10, 2025.
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