Postcards

by Elane Kim

Postcards is a collection of stories about finding home in strange places: an old poolside, a fish market, a frame of the ocean, a language that does not love you back. It is an acknowledgement of loss, of hope, and of the spaces in between. Postcards is a reminder that you will never be more here than you are now, that inside every story is a home.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

18 pages, Paperback

Published December 27, 2022

About the author

Elane Kim is a Korean American writer whose work has been recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation, the Hippocrates Initiative for Poetry and Medicine, and The New York Times, among others. The editor-in-chief of Gaia Lit, she is a 2023 U.S. Presidential Scholar, a 2022 Davidson Fellow in Literature, the winner of the 2021 Columbia Journal Winter Poetry Contest, and the winner of the 2023 Narrative Magazine High School Contest, judged by Naomi Shihab Nye. Her work can be found in Poetry, Electric Literature, One Teen Story, and more. Her story collection, POSTCARDS, was published by Bull City Press in 2022. ANTIBODY, her debut poetry collection, is forthcoming from River River Books in 2026.

Reviews

[John P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing through and through.

Conjures up a swath of emotions and pushes the reader to contemplate life and the relationships made with family and friends. Looking forward to more from this author. Highly recommended.

[kath z · Rating 5 out of 5]

"For now, we will watch the seagulls swallow paper, Appa and I. We will laugh and laugh, because the snow is still soft and we are still here."

Postcards is a collection that will stay with you after you read it. I can't speak highly enough about Elane Kim (<333) and this beautifully poignant collection of jewel-like stories. Each one is breathtaking, lyrical and a little bit heartbreaking and yet somehow still healing and hopeful.

I will keep coming back to this one! Instant favorite.

(PS: This line, from "Murder Hornets", lives in my head rent-free:

"Sometimes, in the quiet of the rain, I would catalog what I had left behind: milk swirling in pale ceramic bowls, elbows at the table, cicada songs, soft orange wind.")

[Justin Ji · Rating 5 out of 5]

more beautiful than the most carefully constructed chipotle bowl

[Alina · Rating 5 out of 5]

My last read of 2022 has turned out to be my favorite of the year (and possibly all time). Elane Kim has a clear and distinctive authorial voice; every word bleeds of tenderness. I will be rereading this chapbook many, many times.

One of my favorite lines, from "Postcards:"
"We will laugh and laugh, because the snow is still soft and we are still here."

(Final note: the cover is gorgeous!)

[Amorak Huey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a brilliant young writer -- such command of the language, such awareness of the complication of human connection.