Profile signs non-fiction from poet Cathy Park Hong

Profile Books will publish a “fearless work of creative non-fiction about racism in cultural pursuits” by award-winning poet Cathy Park Hong.

Profile Books publisher Helen Conford acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from P J Mark at Janklow & Nesbit Associates. Minor Feelings: A Reckoning on Race and the Asian Condition is billed by the publisher as a “fearless work of creative non-fiction about racism in cultural pursuits”. It is slated for publication in hardback on March 5th 2020, following the publication in America by Penguin Random House US.

“The daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up in America steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy,” the synopsis reads. “She would later understand that these 'minor feelings' occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality. With sly humour and a poet's searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness.”

Park Hong said: “When I wrote Minor Feelings, it was essential that I wasn't just writing "about" my identity but using my unique perspective as an Asian American to do so. Asians are often left out of the equation in the black/white discussion on race and I wanted to complicate that discourse. Moreover, it was necessary that I write in a provocative, poetic, and refreshing way that broke tired narratives about identity.”

Conford added: “Cathy Park Hong's Minor Feelings is a fierce, perceptive and original work that brings a new dimension to our understanding of racial consciousness. I'm very excited to bring her radical work of art to the UK. Profile Books is the ideal publisher for my book” says Hong, “because of its integrity, passion, and mission to publish non-fiction books that make a difference in the world. I'm absolutely thrilled and honored to be part of Profile Books.”

Park Hong has written three books of poetry and has won prizes such as the Windham-Campbell Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her essays have been cited by Claudia Rankine, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Ben Lerner.