How an Epic and Violent Family History Fuels Fiction
Paul Yoon on writing to recover what’s lost to the past
Editor’s Note: Read Paul Yoon’s new short story, “Person of Korea.”
“Person of Korea” is a new short story by Paul Yoon. To mark the story’s publication in The Atlantic, Yoon and Oliver Munday, a design director of the magazine, discussed the story over email. Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Oliver Munday: Your short story “Person of Korea” is set partially in a village of Korean laborers near the southeastern edge of Russia. It takes place shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. What about this location and time period drew your interest?
When I was growing up, the Korean diaspora was always shadowed by the Korean War and the effects that
