Bloomsbury lands Henn Kim's graphic poetry debut

Bloomsbury is to publish Starry Night, Blurry Dreams, a debut collection of graphic poetry by Henn Kim. 

Publishing director Emma Herdman acquired world rights from Sarah Kim at Core Artist in a two-book deal.

Kim (pictured) is an illustrator and frequently showcases her work on Instagram, where she creates "intimately relatable graphic poetry, depicting powerful stories in her iconic black and white style". Her work includes the covers of Sally Rooney's novels. 

Partly inspired by her own experiences with depression, Starry Night, Blurry Dreams explores loneliness, love and existing in the world. The collection will be published in August 2021, backed by a major marketing and publicity campaign. Rights have been sold in Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Latvia.

Herdman said: "Henn has an uncanny ability to express complex emotions through simple visuals. I find her work intoxicating, soothing and smart. Having followed Henn for a long time, now working with her and her team has been a creative joy, and it’s an honour to be publishing her."

Kim was born and raised in Ulsan, South Korea, where she lived until she was 18. After moving to Seoul at 19, she focused on music and art, and often designed cover art for indie bands in Seoul. She worked at a design company as a graphic designer, but decided to follow her own path as an illustrator/artist. Since then, her work has been commissioned by the BBC, Unicef, Nike, Bottega Veneta, Snapchat and TED, and has been featured in GQ, the Big Issue, Vogue and on book covers, and exhibited in Hong Kong and Korea.