Authors Gina Chung and Aaliyah Bilal offer rich portraits of vibrant American communities in their short story collections. In Green Frog, Chung explores Korean American womanhood in stories that weave in Korean folklore, science fiction and the fantastic. In Temple Folk, Bilal’s stories chart the lives of people of the Nation of Islam, as they navigate questions of race, faith, sexuality, and politics.
In a dynamic discussion at the 2025 World Voices Festival, Slices of American Life, moderated by World Voices Festival and Literary Programs Manager Sarah Dillard and co-presented by The Korea Society, Chung and Bilal explored the power of storytelling to reflect the lives and desires of their communities, and the art of capturing the complexities of communities through fiction.
On leaving and returning to their communities in writing
The panelists discussed writing characters whose plotlines take them away from their familial and community expectations.
Bilal: “I always found myself imagining people who were struggling with some degree of self-deception, where on some level they had this deep knowledge about themselves, but they were hiding from that knowledge.”
Chung: “I think self-deception is definitely a theme that comes up in a lot of my work as well. Characters who, you know, are somehow compelled to live up to expectations, whether it’s from their parents or communities or lovers or themselves, and then fight against those, are so interesting to me. . .The pleasure of writing is surprising myself on the page. And I think all of us surprise ourselves in our own real lives.”
On incorporating descriptions of food in their writing
The panelists discussed how descriptions of food can convey place, space, and social dynamics.
Chung: “Having your characters sit down to a meal, it’s like a great way to show like dynamics within a family or on a day or, you know, the kinds of things that they would eat or not eat. And so I think taste and smell are. . .a great shortcut for, like, conveying feeling.”
Bilal: “It’s a way of creating for me an Islamic atmosphere without being heavy handed, and specifically to introduce African American Muslim communities. I think when people think about Muslim cooking, they think of the Near East or, you know, South Asia and Southeast Asia. . .Particularly for those of us who came out of the Nation of Islam. . .we have our own food culture.”
The pleasure of writing is surprising myself on the page.
On writing about faith
Chung: “[The church] was such a foundational aspect of my growing up and my upbringing as a Korean American that I knew I would have to write about it and contend with it. And so much of the way religion shows up in my stories is both, something that the characters kind of chafe against. . .But I do still want to talk about it in a way that feels complex, overly dimensional, and, to show the kind of comfort that can be derived or the kind of liberation even, that can be derived from religion.”
Bilal: “I was drawn to characters who found themselves at a distance from the core of the Muslim community. And the tension there would help illustrate the dynamics of those communities.”
On the impact they hope their books will have
Chung: “For so many of us growing up in the margins of society, we don’t grow up seeing ourselves. We transpose maybe our own stories onto stories that feel analogous to ours. But it’s not like when I was younger, I could go to the library and find a book that was about a family like mine. And so I think that there was definitely an element of like, well, if this ever sees the light of day, then at least I will know that I have written—done the best of my ability—and that, I’ve written it maybe for like a younger version of myself that perhaps really needed to see it.”
Bilal: “Writing is an act of self-respect. We write just to bear witness to the fact that we were here. And we write beautifully because we are capable of doing that. And that is the reason to do it.”
Writing is an act of self-respect.
On how they overcome writers block
Chung: “If I’m feeling not motivated but I know I want to write today, I’ll just sit down and I have to like, trick myself, and be like, ‘I’m just going to look at this today. I’m just going to change the font. Maybe I’ll make it a little bigger.’ And then inevitably, you find yourself interested in, like, a line, and you write more than you think you will.”
Bilal: “It’s not a problem or an issue if the story isn’t there yet, because if the story isn’t there, it just means, you know, there’s still something aligning in your mind. The work is happening, but it’s not on the page yet, so don’t be discouraged. Focus on the input and the output will take care of itself.”
