Ask the Author: Ijen Kim
Answered Questions (9)
Ijen Kim
Our world is heading towards environmental collapse and our democracies are eroding fast. No choice and no freedom await us if we don’t act now.
Ijen Kim
I wouldn’t travel to anywhere fictional. I’m too intrigued by the real world.
Ijen Kim
I never have a season specific reading list. I usually read several different books at the same time, currently in Spanish, Chinese and German - a collection of short stories by Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti, a non-fiction work about Ming dynasty emperor Yongle, and a German novel about a time-travelling mandarin from the Song dynasty (ie, 1000 years ago), who ends up in 20th century Munich.
Ijen Kim
I take it as a normal part of the process and don't stress about it. Sometimes, ideas simply don't end up going anywhere and I discard them. That might mean many, many hours of work in vain, but it's not really in vain, for it's all part of the broader creative process. I leave things, give them time and wait until it becomes clearer in my head if this is something that can and should be taken further, or if it's time to just let go and move on.
Ijen Kim
I remember being about five or six and suddenly having the awful realisation that I was locked into being only me and could not live different lives and see the world from different angles. Writing makes that possible in a way.
Also, books were often a tremendous help to me along my road in my life. They were variously friends, mirrors, sources of solace, the means by which I would journey before it was ever possible to see the wider world. They gave me hope and perspective. I'd like to think that for someone else, my writing too might someday be a window, a candle, a friend.
Also, books were often a tremendous help to me along my road in my life. They were variously friends, mirrors, sources of solace, the means by which I would journey before it was ever possible to see the wider world. They gave me hope and perspective. I'd like to think that for someone else, my writing too might someday be a window, a candle, a friend.
Ijen Kim
Accept that there is a vast ocean of words out there, and many will simply pass unnoticed. Life is subjective and talent is not always the measure of things.
Ijen Kim
Some short stories and a novel about love, friendship and terrorism.
Ijen Kim
Millons of small daily things inspire me. I seldom stare at my phone. I'm too busy watching and absorbing life around me.
Ijen Kim
The very first inkling of an idea came while I was walking down a slushy, grey lane in Moscow and the sun came shining down on a barbed wire fence, like a scattering of diamonds. And I thought of the power of the human imagination and human ability to see beauty and hope in even the seemingly bleakest places. The fact that I am myself also an artist and had long been thinking about authoritarian regimes, and living in one, then set me on the track that led to this book
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