Hong is a Paris-based author of three books.[1] The novel Kept: A Comedy of Sex and Manners was published by Simon and Schuster in 2006. The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture[2] was published by Picador Books in the US/Simon & Schuster in the UK in 2014, and has been published in seven languages. It was named an Amazon Editor's Pick.[3] Her third book, The Power of Nunchi: The Korean Secret to Success and Happiness, was published by
Penguin Random House in 2019.[4][5] Her books have been translated into 18 languages, including French, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Italian, German, Portuguese (standard and Brazilian), Indonesian, Thai, and Chinese.[6]
Hong was born in
New Jersey in the
United States. At age 12, she moved to
Seoul with her family, and was educated in both the
Korean public school system and an international school (
Seoul Foreign School). After high school, she returned to the U.S. to attend
Yale University, from which she graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy. While at Yale, she was co-founder and the first Editor-in-Chief of
Rumpus Magazine, an undergraduate humour publication that remains in publication. Hong lives in
Paris,
France, and was a journalist for
France 24, an international news network. She has also lived in
Frankfurt and
Berlin,
Germany. She is fluent in English, Korean, French, and German. Hong is a convert to
Judaism .[8]