In this new episode of The Bánh Mì Chronicles, I’m joined by acclaimed Korean author Bora Chung — best known for her International Booker Prize–shortlisted Cursed Bunny, her visionary collection Your Utopia, and her upcoming novel The Midnight Timetable.
Bora and I talk about how fiction becomes a warning — a way of naming the threats around us and imagining possibilities beyond them. In her homeland of Korea, rising authoritarianism, censorship, and widening inequality shape the landscape of daily life. Globally, we’re witnessing democratic backsliding, climate collapse, and genocide that are forcing us to confront urgent questions of survival and justice.
Our conversation covers:
How speculative and dystopian stories reflect and resist authoritarian systems
What readers can expect from her forthcoming novel The Midnight Timetable
The role of storytelling in confronting fear, grief, and collective trauma
Responsibility as a writer to take a stand on issues in her homeland of Korea to the genocide in Gaza.
Fiction, as Bora reminds us, is never just escape. It warns us of what’s coming — and helps us imagine better, freer futures even in the midst of crisis.
Don’t forget to check out Midnight Timetable (out Sept. 30, 2025), along with her acclaimed books Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia.
To order a copy of Midnight Timetable:
Bio
Bora Chung is a writer and translator whose works include the National Book Award finalist and International Booker Prize-shortlisted Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia. She has an MA in Russian Studies from Yale University and a PhD in Slavic literature from Indiana University. She has taught Russian language and literature and science fiction at Yonsei University and translates modern literary works from Russian and Polish into Korean.
