GINA CHUNG
GREEN FROG
PRH/Vintage, March 12, 2024
Picador, June 6, 2024
Preorder
A short story collection that explores Korean American womanhood, bodies, animals, and transformation as a means of survival.
Equal parts fantastical—a pair of talking dolls help twins escape a stifling home, a heart boils on the stove as part of an elaborate cure for melancholy, a fox demon contemplates avenging her sister’s death—and true to life—a mother and daughter try to heal their rift when the daughter falls unexpectedly pregnant, a woman reexamines her father’s legacy after his death—the stories in this collection are hopeful and heartbreaking, full of danger and full of joy.
Chung is a master at capturing emotion, and her characters—human and otherwise—will claw their way into your heart and make themselves at home.
About Gina Chung
Photo credit: S.M. Sukardi
Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in New York City. She is the author of the novel SEA CHANGE (Vintage, March 28, 2023; Picador, April 13, 2023 in the Commonwealth and in the UK on August 10, 2023), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, an Asian/Pacific American Award for Adult Fiction Honor, a 2023 B&N Discover Pick, and a New York Times Most Anticipated Book, and the short story collection GREEN FROG (Vintage, March 12, 2024; out in the UK/Commonwealth from Picador on June 6, 2024). A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School's Creative Writing Program and a BA in literary studies from Williams College. Her work appears or is forthcoming in One Story, BOMB, The Kenyon Review, Literary Hub, Catapult, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Idaho Review, The Rumpus, Pleiades, and F(r)iction, among others. Her stories have been recognized by the American Short(er) Fiction Contest, the Black Warrior Review Contest, the Los Angeles Review Literary Awards, the CRAFT Elements Contest, and the Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest, as well as named Longform Fiction Pick of the Week.
Praise for GREEN FROG
A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 —Elle, Debutiful, The Rumpus, The Millions
"A fantastic medley of short stories that dance between literary fiction, fable, Korean folklore, and science fiction. Wildly entertaining, wonderfully diverse, and always delivered with a superb understanding of pacing and economy of language, the stories in this collection are full of emotional intelligence but also prove Chung isn't afraid to explore what genre mixing can do for short narratives."
Spring 2024 Adult Preview: Literary Fiction —Publishers Weekly
75 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2024 —Electric Literature
"Superb. . . Standouts are many, effortlessly ranging from fantastical, futuristic, and slice-of-real-life narratives. . . . Chung proves she’s a vibrant heir to her beloved first storyteller."
"A collection of achingly real but also sometimes unusual stories about survival, change, nature, and womanhood, with a dash of Korean mythology and culture. . . . Great for people who like Bora Chung, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Yōko Ogawa, Carmen Maria Machado, and so many more.”
—Book Riot
"Sprinkled in folkloric wisdom and speculative darkness, Gina Chung’s story collection, Green Frog, humors and haunts with thoughtful precision."
"Imbued with subtle magic, balancing one foot in and one foot out of the ordinary. . . .
Green Frog glitters and haunts, remaining with you until, slowly, you start to see yourself and your surroundings differently."
"Chung’s gift is patiently unraveling ordinary moments in ordinary lives and conveying their significance in translucent prose. Lovely, emotionally resonant stories."
"Dynamic . . . Chung’s talents are on full display in these contemplative tales."
"Although Gina Chung's Green Frog nimbly encompasses multiple genres, fraught parental relationships unite many of the impressive collection's 15 stories."
"Gina Chung writes with great heart and daring. Her stories reach for new ways of framing the Korean-American experience, laying claim to all genre or style that serves her purpose. Quite literally spanning the cerebral to the visceral, this is a collection that refuses to acknowledge the limits of immigrant fiction."
—Yoon Choi, author of Skinship
“Gina Chung’s Green Frog is remarkable. The stories hit, each one, and land with such seeming perfection. Chung’s book sits next to my all-time favorite story collections by masters of the craft: Karen Russell, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, George Saunders, and Ted Chiang. This book does not disappoint—it defies gravity in such a way that it takes your breath away, like it lifts you up and up and up past the clouds and into space. There is so much raw power and emotion in these stories that after finishing each one, I felt more and more alive. Green Frog is an unforgettable dream."
—Morgan Talty, award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez
"With Green Frog Gina Chung further announces herself as a bold new voice in American Literature. Pulsating with heart and profound emotional intelligence, these masterful short stories build into a tapestry of wonder. These powerful characters with their voices rendered so elegantly will stay with you long after the last page."
—Kali Fajardo-Anstine, bestselling author of Woman of Light
"From praying mantises to toothy cats to shape-shifting kumihos—a menagerie of creatures stalk Gina Chung’s stories, bringing their appetites and apprehensions to these spellbinding narratives of love, loss, and belonging. In Green Frog, magic comes in many forms: from outright enchantments to small miracles of grace. Every story in this collection feels heart-thumpingly alive."
—Allegra Hyde, author of The Last Catastrophe