After meeting the world’s best agent, I somehow lucked out equally in meeting Sara Birmingham as my editor. Her editing was an art in and of itself, and her courage in taking this on made me want to meet her brilliance at least halfway. My deepest thanks go to Sara, amazing editorial assistant TJ Calhoun, and the dream team at Ecco （especially Allison Saltzman for the mythic jacket, Shelly Perron for the awe-inspiring copyediting, and Caitlin Mulrooney-Lyski for the tireless championing）。 They made this the best book that it could be.
I am grateful to editors of literary journals and magazines who have shown faith in me over the years, especially Luke Neima of Granta, who published my first short story, “Body Language,” and later, my first translation. I was proud to publish an excerpt of this book in Shenandoah, thanks to the warm support of the incredible Beth Staples. Thank you to everyone at Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, Regional Arts & Culture Commission, and the Virginia C. Piper Writing Center at Arizona State University, especially Ashley Wilkins for her patience and warmth. Olivia Chen, Hilary Leathem, and James Gruett read drafts and provided keen insights that turned the book from a mere cub to a full-grown beast. My Princeton women authors—especially Keija Parssinen, Alexis Schaitkin, Clare Beams, Eva Hagberg, Kate McQuade, and Amanda Dennis—I’ve received so much wisdom, joy, and camaraderie from our chats.
More inyeons who have touched my life and played a part in turning Beasts into a reality: Thank you, Edgard Beckand, for giving me everlasting confidence. Thank you, Max Staedtler, for giving me resolve—-I wouldn’t have become a writer without you. Thank you Arron Lloyd for giving me optimism. I didn’t know it then, but that day when we went running in Fort Tryon Park in a snowstorm was a turning point for the rest of my life. Mareza Larizadeh, your friendship and mentorship mean the world to me. Thank you, Elise Anderson, for the loyalty, bon mots, and memories—-the fact that you remember what I remember is one of the miracles of life. Renee Serell, my oldest friend: like the friends in this book, our lives were always meant to be shared.
My warmest gratitude and love go to Mary Hood Luttrell and the rest of my Peaceful Dumpling family. Mary read some of the earliest chapters of the book, and was always just a text away from answering any literary quandary. Support and love from Crystal Chin, Lindsay Frederick, Iga Kazmierczak, Lauren Sacerdote, Imola Toth, Nea Pantry, Kat Kennedy, Lana Stafford, Ema Melanaphy, and other Peaceful Dumpling editors and readers sustained me while writing this book.
I am grateful to Wildlife Conservation Society Russia and the Phoenix Fund for their decades of tirelessly protecting the endangered Siberian tigers and Amur leopards in the Russian Far East. Thank you for allowing me to contribute a portion of the proceeds from this book to your conservation efforts. I’d also like to acknowledge early twentieth--century writers and artists from different countries and ideologies; researching their works was essential to bringing this time and place to the present.
This book isn’t meant to declare the triumph of one ideology or country over another, but to reflect and uphold our shared humanity. Suffering knows no borders, and all people deserve and yearn for peace. One day while writing this book, I was passing by Columbus Circle when I saw Japanese activists holding up signs against nuclear weapons. They looked as though they were within a generation of the bombings, yet they were smiling gently. Thank you for the paper crane—the symbol of peace.
My mother, Inja Kim, provided me with her favorite book on literary theory （edited by Kim Hyun）， discussions on Korean linguistics and literature, and history lessons—both of the country and of our family. Her stories of her father, Kim TaeHee, his golden-brown eyes, and his mysterious trips to Shanghai during the colonial period became the inspiration for this novel. My father, Hackmoo Kim, mailed me books from Portland to New York, and always picked up any tomes that he thought I might find even slightly inspiring or interesting. But my parents helped write this book long before I even knew I was going to be a writer, passing down their love of the arts and nature, and teaching me how to live as an artist and as a human being. They believed in me before I had any belief in myself. I owe them everything.
And, finally, to David Shaw, the great inyeon of my life. We met before we even met, which is how I know everything I wrote in this novel is true.
About the Author
JUHEA KIM was born in Incheon, Korea, and moved to Portland, Oregon, at age nine. Her writing has been published in Granta, Guernica, Catapult, ZYZZYVA, and other outlets. She is the founder and editor of Peaceful Dumpling, an online magazine at the intersection of sustainable lifestyle and ecological literature. She earned her BA in art and archaeology from Princeton University. Beasts of a Little Land, her debut novel, will be translated and published around the world. After a decade in New York City, Kim now lives with her two rescue cats in Portland, Oregon.