Speakeasy with ... author Nami Mun
Mun’s debut novel Miles from Nowhere follows Joon, a Korean American teenager growing up on the streets of New York during the ’80s. The author comes to A Cappella Books/Opal Gallery Mon., Jan. 19, 7 p.m.
Nami Mun’s debut novel Miles from Nowhere follows Joon, a Korean American teenager growing up on the streets of New York during the ’80s. Mun, like the protagonist, came of age as a teenage runaway on the streets of the Bronx. These days, she’s the recipient of a coveted Pushcart Prize and teaches creative writing at the Columbia College in Chicago. She comes to A Cappella Books/Opal Gallery Mon., Jan. 19, 7 p.m.
How closely is Joon based on your own experiences growing up?
Joon and I are both Korean American and we were both runaways. But the similarities pretty much stop there. I mean, what happens to her, the decisions that she makes and the events that occur in the book, are completely fictional and in many ways are much more interesting than anything that ever happened to me in my own life. Fiction is always more interesting to me.