Jung Yun: On Recreating Issues of Misogyny and Racism in a Fictional World, the Importance of Writing Daily and Her Latest Novel, "O Beautiful"
In Jung Yun’s latest novel, O Beautiful, Elinor Hanson, a forty-something former model, is working her way up in the freelance journalist world. When her mentor from grad school offers her a chance to write for a prestigious magazine about the Bakken oil boom in North Dakota, she finds herself going back to where she grew up, a place she never really felt at home in, even as a child. Now, unrecognizable with thousands of newcomers flocking to the state to find work, Elinor finds herself back in the midst of racism and misogyny within a deeply divided community. This is a story about alienation, grief, family, and one woman’s anger as she confronts her ghosts.
We spoke with Jung Yun about O Beautiful and what it was like addressing these topics of racism and misogyny on the fictional page.
Kailey Brennan DelloRusso: Our society has such an expectation of life events, especially for women, and I thought the choice of having Elinor pursue her degree in her thirties made her a more interesting character. Can you speak about this choice a bit more?
Jung Yun: I liked the idea of a woman in her forties trying to carve out a second career in journalism after aging out of her first (modeling). Because Elinor spent her youth trying to earn a living while she could make one, she went to college in her late thirties and found herself surrounded by eighteen- and nineteen-year olds, all of whom seemed better educated than she was. This did little for her self-esteem, particularly after coming from an industry where her main role was to “shut up and look pretty” and people often dismissed her and her fellow models as dumb. It also added to Elinor’s lifelong sense of never quite feeling like she belonged anywhere. Even as a college student, her “peers” regarded her as an interloper in the classroom because of her age.
KBD: I could feel Elinor’s anger and exhaustion throughout these pages as she is constantly misunderstood, as assumptions are made about her, as her space is so often violated. And of course the relentless catcalling. As a writer, what was it like to write these interactions and explore this female rage throughout?
JY: It was a little crazy-making, writing a book like this during the same four-year period that gave us the Trump presidency, #MeToo, the Kavanaugh hearings, the continued violence against Black and brown men, women, and children, and so many more moments of anger, grief, and shock. Yet there I was, writing a novel that involved recreating issues of misogyny and racism in a fictional world rather than using fiction to try and escape them. Complicated as it sometimes felt, I do think that this book provided a chance for me to reflect on these issues and imagine what someone like Elinor, who has encountered so much racism and sexism during her lifetime, can do with her anger.
KBD: How long did it take you to write O Beautiful? Are you an outliner? Or do you just go for it when drafting?
JY: I’m definitely not an outliner. Maybe my writing life would be simpler if I was, but I’ve tried outlining so many times, and it’s just not for me. I generally draft fast and ugly and loose, with a focus on characters first, then work through big picture issues like structure and style in countless rounds of revision. All told, I would guess that O Beautiful took about four years, give or take.
KBD: Can you walk us through your writing progress/routine?
JY: I’m a daily morning writer. I find that when I write first thing in the morning—even if I can only squeeze in half an hour—that sense of purpose and commitment to my work carries throughout the day and makes me a better partner, daughter, teacher, and colleague. Writing daily is especially important to me when writing novels. Taking weeks away from a big long-form project or only writing on weekends forces me to revisit the whole manuscript (or large sections of it) in order to feel grounded in the story. That’s a huge time suck, so I’d rather write every day for short bursts of time than wait for some magic gift of five hours that I don’t usually get, especially during the school year when I’m teaching.
KBD: O Beautiful is your second novel. How did the writing progress differ from writing your first novel?
JY: I think I entered into the project with more confidence that I could draft, edit, and finish a novel. But the process still required the same problem-solving skills that I used with the first. I was just working with an entirely different set of problems. During the toughest moments, when I really felt stuck or was looking at a major fork in the road, it was nice to have that confidence to lean on and remind myself: different problems, same skills.
KBD: What book(s) did you read this year that you would recommend to us?
JY: I’ve been telling everyone that my two favorite novels published in 2021 are Memorial by Bryan Washington and Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford. But clearly, my sense of time is warped thanks to the pandemic. Both books were actually published in 2020. So for true 2021 fiction releases, I’d say How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue and The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. I also loved Cara Blue Adams’ debut story collection, You Never Get It Back, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award.
In terms of nonfiction, Elizabeth Greenwood’s Love Lockdown was an amazingly researched, compassionate look at couples who meet, marry, and/or carry on relationships while one of the partners is incarcerated. Also, Graywolf does a nice little series of books on writing called The Art of… and I loved their most recent, The Art of Revision by Peter Ho Davies.
JUNG YUN was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. She studied at Vassar College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing.
Her work has appeared in Tin House, The Massachusetts Review, The Indiana Review, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She is the recipient of individual artist’s grants in fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, and the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. She has also received residential fellowships from MacDowell, the Ucross Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the National Humanities Center.
Currently, Jung lives in Baltimore with her husband and is an assistant professor of English at the George Washington University. She serves on the boards of directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center at George Mason University. She also serves as a member of the Creative Council at the Peace Studio.
