When I catch up with Jean Kwok, she’s just returned from the American Library Association conference in Chicago to her home in the Netherlands. “Librarians are the best, aren’t they?” she says. “They’re a very important part of my life because I was so poor. The library was an incredible refuge for me. I would not be a writer today without the library.” But that isn’t the only reason why Kwok was at the ALA conference. “Nowadays with banned books, they’re really under siege. I think this is the time when we need to step up and show our support for our librarians and our schools.”
Banned books are something Kwok knows a thing or two about. Her debut novel, Girl in Translation, which she describes as “my most autobiographical novel based on my working in a factory as a kid and living in an unheated rat-infested apartment in Brooklyn,” was recently the subject of the rampant and overreaching book-banning efforts currently on the rise in the U.S. So, when a parent asked Kwok to write a short defense of the book that could be read at the school board meeting, Kwok agreed. “As I was writing it, I got more and more riled up,” she told WD. “… And I thought, I have to go there. I can’t let that stand. So, I flew from the Netherlands to Pennsylvania and defended it in person.”
Making the trip wasn’t without its risks, though. “I really didn’t know how much aggression I would be facing, and I also could have hurt my career,” Kwok says. And while her attendance didn’t prevent her book from being banned, it was the principle of the matter: “It’s about saying what’s right and what’s wrong, and also speaking up for other authors who might not be able to, might not be safe doing so.”
Speaking about her life, as she did during her speech defending her work, is nothing new for Kwok, and if there’s one word to describe her work, it’s personal. Her novels have been, Kwok was also a professional ballroom dancer for years. Her third novel, the Read With Jenna book club pick , was inspired by the disappearance of Kwok’s brother. So when Kwok said her newest novel, , was her most personal book since her debut, I had questions.
