"I read your book." | Sung J. Woo

I was recently interviewed for a travel Q&A by Tribune Media Services.  The piece should be making its rounds this Sunday in various newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, though the Hartford Courant gets a gold star for having it up faster than anyone:

With his critically acclaimed debut novel, “Everything Asian,” Sung J. Woo succinctly and poignantly captures a year in the life of a 12-year-old immigrant who tries to navigate life in the United States while trying to understand his estranged father. A resident of Washington, N.J., the 38-year-old author chats about his recent trip to Alaska and how he gets the best hotel deals.

[read more]

For the full text of the interview (parts that didn’t make the cut), check out the wonderful website of Jae-Ha Kim, the interviewer.

Thirty-six events.  Driving to Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Flying to San Francisco.  Yesterday marked the eight-month anniversary of my novel’s publication, and I can now declare that the tour is done for 2009, because I have no more bookstores, colleges, or events to visit for the rest of the year.  I’ve done a lot of driving around for this tour:

April 10 – NJ indie bookstores visits – 230
April 11 – NJ indie bookstores visits – 180
April 18 – KGB reading – 122
April 25 – Borders @ Eatontown – 142
April 29 – Princeton Public Library – 96
April 30 – Boston Public Library (Metro Park, NJ) – 74
May 9 – CAAA – 122
May 14 – AABF – 606
May 19 – Cornell Club of Lancaster, PA – 200
May 21 – AAWW – 122
May 22 – Newark Airport Borders – 110
May 28 – Newark Airport for SF reading – 110
June 5 – to Ithaca, NY – 171
June 7 – from Ithaca, NY – 176
June 10 – Beatrice reading – 122
June 13 – Bootleg Books interview in Brooklyn – 136
June 14 – Books NJ (Paramus, NJ) – 122
June 18 – Cornell Club of Phillie – 138
June 23 – McGoldrick (Queens, NY) – 60
June 25 – Generations XYZ, NYC – 122
June 30 – Scotch Plains Library – 80
July 1 – Korea Society – 122
July 16 – KCCP Princeton – 97
July 31 – Brielle Library – 168
August 7 – Raconteur – 92
August 20 – hunterdon county lib – 51
September 12 – baltimore and gaithersberg, md – 224
September 13 – DC – 240
September 17 – Montclair – 104
September 19 – Princeton – 96
October 14 – Ridgewood, NJ – 123
October 20-22 – Aurora, NY – 398
November 4 – Easton, PA – 27
November 12 – NYC – 122
November 18 – Hackettstown – 28

That comes to a total of 5133 actual miles.  That’s New-Jersey-to-California-round-trip kind of miles.  I’m sort of floored by that number, but really, I shouldn’t be.  It’s the power of gradual accrual, and it’s how books are written, too, a page at a time.

Check out some nice photos from the Dirty Laundry reading with Ed Park, which was just all-around awesome.  Ed read a hilarious excerpt from his new novel (tentatively titled Disambiguation), and I read from my short story “Translation” [PDF].

The last photo is actually from Centenary College before I started reading (Smith Hall Rotunda).  This was a delightful event — it was part of International Week, so I got to meet students from Korea, China, and Japan.

And that’s all she wrote.  Until next year, that is, when the paperback comes out.

Pete, Joan, Peggy at

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

The new family.

I’m back on The Browser home page for today and tomorrow, in celebration of John Liu‘s historic win:

History was made this week when John Liu became the first Asian-American to be elected financial officer of New York City. Author Sung J Woo says spring rolls are now as American as apple pie and he chooses the best Five Books on the Asian-American experience.

[read more]

Listen to writers read while you wait for your laundry…is that genius or what?  I’ll be there with the talented Ed Park:

Dirty Laundry: Loads of Prose

Volume 21

When: Thursday, November 12th, 7:30pm – 8:30pm

Location: Avenue A Laundromat – 97 Avenue A between 6th and 7th Street (Google Maps)

This will be my last NYC reading for the year, so come on by.  And if you are still in the area (or lucky enough to live near the big city), don’t forget that the Asian American Literary Festival, Page Turner, will be gearing up that weekend.  Ed will be participating, and another fine Ed will be there as well.  Be there!