Grace M. Cho is the author of Tastes Like War (Feminist Press, 2021), a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award in nonfiction and the winner of the 2022 Asian Pacific American Literature Award in adult nonfiction. Her first book, Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War (University of Minnesota Press, 2008), received a 2010 book award from the American Sociological Association.
Her writings have appeared in The Nation, Catapult, The New Inquiry, Poem Memoir Story, Contexts, Gastronomica, Feminist Studies, Womens Studies Quarterly, and Qualitative Inquiry.
During her time at MacDowell, Cho researched and drafted the first chapter of her new book, We Will Go to Jinju: A Search for Family and the Hidden History of the Korean War, under contract with Viking. The project is a rewriting of the McCarthy era narrative that claims the Korean War was a righteous attack of communism. It will combine personal and collective history, archival research, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea’s investigations into the widespread use of civilian massacre as a tool of anti-communism.
Portrait by Hyeonwoo Lee
