Heart Eater: A Memoir of Immigration, Belonging, and How We Find Ourselves in Language

Heart Eater traces the author’s childhood and how she went from being a nameless, abandoned nine-month-old baby in Seoul, South Korea to, as an adult, becoming an award-winning Asian American author who writes in multiple genres. The book is made of short essays, or ＂field notes,＂ that explore moments and experiences in the author’s life that made her pay extra attention to the words being used.

Each titled ＂field note＂ memorializes and reflects on encounters with language regarding race, ethnicity, migration, kinship, citizenship, gender, class, that would eventually become the foundation of the kind of writer she would become. Her public school education, her upbringing in the Roman Catholic Church, and nearly everything she experienced during her American childhood contributed to her ability to answer the question that has obsessed her since she was young, ＂What does it mean to be American?＂

신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin is an award-winning poet and essayist who was born in Korea, grew up in the Chicago area, and is currently based in Minneapolis. Her work has been published widely in places such as POETRY, BOMB magazine, and the 2021 Gwangju Biennale; she speaks and presents frequently. Her fifth book of poems, Six Tones of Water, an experimental work co-written with Vi Khi Nao, was published by Ricochet Editions in 2024; her four other poetry/essay collections including The Wet Hex and Unbearable Splendor are published by Coffee House Press.