THE STORIES WRITTEN INTO OUR BODIES

In eras of protest, political unrest, and terror, trauma does not cease with the end of a march, a regime change, or a peace treaty; it takes root in memory.

Chilean-Palestinian novelist Lina Meruane tells the story of a young astrophysicist who develops a mysterious illness as she digs into her country’s past in Nervous System. In her new short story collection, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, Mariana Enríquez explores manifestations of psychological and physical distress in the context of post-dictatorship Argentina. Grace M. Cho’s genre-defying nonfiction bridges food memoir and sociological study to make sense of her mother’s schizophrenia as a Korean immigrant in Tastes Like War. Together, these authors explore the complex relationship between history, the act of witnessing, and survival.

This digital event will take place at 12pm ET / 9am PT. If you have any questions, please visit our FAQs.

About the book:

A Korean American daughter's exploration of food and family history, in order to understand her mother's schizophrenia.

Grace M. Cho grew up as the daughter of a white American merchant marine and the Korean bar hostess he met abroad. They were one of few immigrants in a xenophobic small town during the Cold War, where identity was politicized by everyday details—language, cultural references, memories, and food. When Grace was fifteen, her dynamic mother experienced the onset of schizophrenia, a condition that would continue and evolve for the rest of her life.

Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is a hybrid text about a daughter’s search through intimate and global history for the roots of her mother’s schizophrenia. In her mother’s final years, Grace learned to cook dishes from her mother’s childhood in order to invite the past into the present, and to hold space for her mother’s multiple voices at the table. And through careful listening over these shared meals, Grace discovered not only the things that broke the brilliant, complicated woman who raised her—but also the things that kept her alive.

About the author:

Grace M. Cho is the author of Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War, which received a 2010 book award from the American Sociological Association. Her writings have appeared in journals such as the New Inquiry, Poem Memoir Story, Contexts, Gastronomica, Feminist Studies, WSQ, and Qualitative Inquiry. She is associate professor of sociology and anthropology at the College of Staten Island, CUNY.