R. O. Kwon

R. O. Kwon, also known as Reese Okyong Kwon, is a South Korean–born American author. In 2018, she published her nationally bestselling debut novel The Incendiaries with Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Her second novel, Exhibit, was published in 2024 with Riverhead Books.

Early life
Kwon was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Los Angeles with her family when she was three. She was raised in a Christian household but at the age of 17 experienced a crisis of faith and stopped believing in God.

She attended Yale University. She has a Master of Fine Arts from Brooklyn College.

Career
Kwon's work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Paris Review, BuzzFeed, Vice, New York Magazine's The Cut, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, and MacDowell.

In 2018, Kwon published her debut novel, The Incendiaries, about a woman who becomes involved with a cult of extremist Christians. The novel was inspired by Kwon's own loss of faith in God, and took 10 years to finish. The Incendiaries was named a best book of the year by over 40 publications and organizations, including the Today Show, NPR, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, PBS Books, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, and elsewhere, and is being translated into seven languages. Before the book's release, Kwon was called one of "4 writers to watch" by The New York Times. The Incendiaries is an American Booksellers Association Indie Next #1 Great Read and an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce Pick. The novel received the Housatonic Book Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award for Best First Book, Los Angeles Times First Book Prize, and Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Fiction Prize. In addition, the book has been nominated for the American Library Association Carnegie Medal and Aspen Prize.

Kink, a nationally bestselling anthology Kwon co-edited with Garth Greenwell, was released in 2021. Her second novel, Exhibit, was published in 2024.

Personal life
In November 2018 Kwon revealed that she is bisexual. The initials in her name stand for Reese, her English name, and Okyong, her Korean name. She publishes as R. O. Kwon. Kwon lives in San Francisco and “the long-term plan is to be here until climate change chases us out”.