Bookwild

Identity, Immigration and Intent: Isabel J. Kim's Sublimation

Episode Notes

In this episode, I talk with Isabel J. Kim about her debut speculative fiction, Sublimation!  

Listen to hear about:

• How Isabel J. Kim's inspiration for Sublimation came from her own experience growing up between Korea and the United States and wondering how different her life might have been if she had stayed in Korea permanently.
• Why "instancing" (where you split into two people when you cross a border) worked so well as a speculative framework to explore identity, immigration, belonging, and the ways environment shapes who we become over time.
• The process of expanding her short story into a novel, which required adding new perspectives and characters to show that different people would experience the phenomenon of instancing in radically different ways.
• How she chose to approach borders as both physical and social constructs, examining how governments, corporations, immigration systems, and personal choices all influence identity and belonging.
• Why speculative fiction often isn't really about the future—it uses imagined worlds to examine present-day social, political, and cultural tensions through a different lens.