Join acclaimed novelists Nicola Dinan and Juhea Kim to discuss the cost of ambition, what it means to succeed, and the expectations that we hold for ourselves and others with novelist Rowan Hisayo Buchanan. Is it ever, really, worth it?
Nicola Dinan grew up in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur and now lives in London. Bellies, her debut, won the Polari First Book Prize, was shortlisted for the Diverse Book Awards and Mo Siewcharran Prize, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize. Her second book, Disappoint Me, was released to great acclaim ealrier this year.
Juhea Kim is the author of the international bestseller Beasts of a Little Land, which has been published around the world. It won the Yasnaya Polyana Award and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and is currently being adapted into a television series. Kim’s second novel, City of Night Birds, was published in January 2025. Kim earned her BA in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University. Her writing has been published in Granta, Times Literary Supplement, Independent, Zyzzyva, Guernica and elsewhere. Born in South Korea and raised in Portland, Oregon, Kim now lives in London.
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan is the author of Harmless Like You, Starling Days, and The Sleep Watcher. Rowan is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She has won The Authors’ Club First Novel Award and a Betty Trask Award and has been shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award. Her short work has appeared in several places including Granta, Guernica, The Guardian, The Harvard Review, and NPR’s Selected Shorts. She is the editor of the Go Home! and Dog Hearted anthologies.
