In R.O. Kwon’s new novel , protagonist Jin muses about the potentially unpleasant associations the world might have with her long-held (if normally hidden) appetite for rough sex, and domination in particular.
As a bisexual, straight-married Korean-American woman, Jin worries about fulfilling the racist trope of the submissive by placing her sexual desires ahead of her art and life, even as she gives herself over to pursuing complex pleasures found in her constantly evolving sub-domme dynamic with Lidija, a recently-injured ballerina she meets at a party. Kwon is an expert at plumbing the “why?” behind her characters’ wants with empathy and grace, as she displayed in her 2018 novel Her examination of kink, desire, shame, lust and the liminal space we enter when we finally stop denying ourselves, though, makes uniquely successful and powerfully sexy. (Trust me, there's never been a hotter literary exploration of period sex.
) This week, Vogue spoke to Kwon about anxiety, writing the complicated dynamic between Jin and Lidija, and rereading Audre Lord. Well, I’ve talked in public about how anxiety-riddled I was leading up to publication. It’s amazing to hear from readers who have really connected to the book on a very personal level; not that books don’t do that otherwise, but it feels different than it did with and [the anthology Kwon co-edited with Garth Greenwell in 2021].
I’m hearing a lot about people’s lives, which I’m very honored and glad to hear abou.