Sook Nyul Choi

Background

Sook Nyul Choi was born in 1937 in Pyongyang, North Korea. In 1958 she immigrated to the United States. She has siblings.

Education

In 1962 Sook Nyul Choi received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Manhattanville College.

Career

After college, Sook Nyul Choi worked for a brief time for her husband, a Korean businessman. She taught in New York City and Massachusetts schools. After twenty years of teaching Choi retired and devoted her time to her writing.

Since all of Choi's novels are based on her personal experience, her books can be read as a journey through her life. Year of Impossible Goodbyes was Choi's first novel, published in 1991. The story covers her incredible escape to South Korea. In Choi's second novel, Echoes of the White Giraffe (1993), the protagonist, Sookan, is a teenager. The story is set in South Korea and portrays the invasion by North Korea, as supported by Russia and China, into the lower portion of the Korean Peninsula. Once again, Sookan and her family are forced on the run. Gathering of Pearls (1994) is the last of Choi's trilogy and follows Sookan as she travels to the United States to go to college. The novel portrays the challenges that Sookan must face in learning and adjusting to a culture completely different from her own. After this trilogy, Choi wrote Halmoni and the Picnic (1993) and Yunmi and Halmoni's Trip (1997), two children's picture books. Also in 1997, she published The Best Older Sister, an easy reader for elementary-school students.

Her books have been widely anthologized in educational reading series; Halmoni and the Picnic was included in Celebrate, Invitation to Literacy Series, Houghton Mifflin, 1996, and Literature Works textbook series, Silver Burdett Ginn, 1997; The Best Older Sister was included in My Time to Shine reading series, Scott Foresman, 2000, and Lectura Sigo yo, sigo yo reading series in Spanish, Scott Foresman, 2000; Yunmi and Halmoni’s Trip was included in the Horizons reading series, Houghton Mifflin, 2001. She lives in Massachusetts, where she spends her time writing and giving lectures on her books.

Achievements

• Sook Nyul Choi is best known for her autobiographical, award winning trio of novels, Year of Impossible Goodbyes, Echoes of the White Giraffe, and Gathering of Pearls. Choi’s picture books have also won several awards, and her 1993 title, Halmoni and the Picnic, was featured on the Reading Rainbow television series. Several of Choi’s works have been translated into French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Korean.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Year of Impossible Goodbyes

    (This autobiographical story tells of ten-year-old Sookan ...)

    1991
  • Yunmi and Halmoni's Trip

    (When she travels to Korea with her grandmother, Halmoni, ...)

    1997
  • Echoes of the White Giraffe

    (In this sequel to Year of Impossible Goodbyes, the unforg...)

    1993
  • Gathering of Pearls

    (The conclusion to the remarkable story of the young Korea...)

    1994
  • The Best Older Sister

    (There's always so much fuss over baby Kiju that Sunhi sus...)

    1997
  • Halmoni and the Picnic

    (When Yunmi's class plans a picnic in Central Park, her Ko...)

    1993

Views

Quotations: "Harmony will prevail. After darkness, there will be light. The light cannot come without the darkness. Better days are bound to come now."

"One’s life is short, but the life of the spirit is long."

Connections

Sook Nyul Choi is the widow of Nung Ho Choi. She has two daughters, Kathleen Choi and Audrey Choi.

late spouse:

Nung Ho Choi

Daughter:

Audrey Choi

Daughter:

Kathleen Choi

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2010