At Book Hangover Club, we’re all about celebrating not just the amazing books, but the people behind them. We want to share the story behind the storyteller; their wins, challenges, and what makes their journey unique.
On this page, you’ll get a peek behind the scenes and find links to learn more about each author’s life and work. It’s a way to connect with the voices you love on a whole new level.
Because great books come from great stories, and we’re here to tell both. Keep visiting to read more about these great authors.
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Jinwoo Chong
JinwooChong.com
Jinwoo Chong is the author of Flux and I Leave It Up to You, two genre-defying novels that explore identity, memory, time, and the strange beauty of being human. His debut, Flux, was named a New York Times Editor’s Choice and ended up on a ton of “Best of 2023” lists from Apple Books, Esquire, GQ, Amazon, HuffPost, Cosmopolitan, and Goodreads. It was also a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award… not bad for a first book.
Chong has a gift for weaving sci-fi elements with emotional depth, often focusing on characters struggling with loss, isolation, or fractured timelines. His writing has appeared in Guernica, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Chicago Quarterly Review, and The Southern Review, and he’s known for packing big themes into tight, deliberate prose that still keeps readers hooked.
When he’s not writing, Chong is vocal about the importance of Asian American representation in literature and often reflects on his own experiences as a Korean American navigating identity in both life and fiction. His work resonates with readers who appreciate when a story doesn’t hand over all the answers. Instead, he invites you to sit with ambiguity, to question what’s real, and to find meaning in the spaces between. Whether he’s playing with nonlinear timelines or dropping subtle emotional landmines, Jinwoo Chong is a writer who doesn’t just tell stories; he constructs entire emotional experiences.
Before publishing his novels, Chong earned his MFA from Columbia University and worked with lit journals like One Story and Columbia Journal. These days, he lives in New Jersey with his husband and their cat, where he continues to write stories that challenge structure, genre, and sometimes your sense of reality. Feel free to read more from the sources I used below.
Sources
Jimwoo Chong | New York Times | Esquire
Random House Books | Craft Literary
Percival Everett
Percival Everett is the kind of author who doesn’t just write books; he dismantles genres, rewires expectations, and leaves you thinking long after the final page. With over 30 works spanning satire, mystery, Westerns, literary fiction, and more, he’s built a career on not fitting into any one box, and we love him for it.
Everett’s work has earned serious recognition: he’s a Booker Prize finalist, a Pulitzer finalist, and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, among others. But most importantly (if you ask us), his novel The Trees earned a spot as our Book Hangover of the Month for July, and trust us, it’s one you won’t stop thinking about.
Much of Everett’s writing confronts issues of race, identity, and social injustice; often through sharp satire, unexpected humor, and genre-blending narratives that challenge readers to see familiar truths from new angles.
“I’m not a natural storyteller. I start with something that bugs me, some philosophical problem, and then I look for a way to explore it.”— Percival Everett, The Paris Review (source)
You might also recognize his name from Erasure, the novel that inspired the Oscar-winning film American Fiction. Of course, you can’t walk into a Barnes and Noble without seeing his most recent novel, James, scattered through their featured shelves for Book of the Year. Whether he’s unpacking America’s contradictions or flipping literary norms on their heads, Everett’s voice is bold, nuanced, and unlike anything else out there.
When he’s not writing, he’s teaching English at the University of Southern California, where he continues to challenge and inspire.
Sources
The Paris Review | USC Faculty Profile | Penguin Random House
Booker Prize| National Book Foundation
Yoko Ogawa
Yoko Ogawa is one of Japan’s most celebrated literary voices, known for her quiet, unsettling stories that linger long after the final page. Born in Okayama in 1962, she has written more than 20 books exploring themes like memory, control, and human connection, which is why she is a perfect author to highlight on TheBookHangoverClub.
Her international breakthrough, The Housekeeper and the Professor, introduced many readers to her delicate, emotional storytelling. But it was The Memory Police: a chilling dystopian novel about a world where things (and memories) disappear, which earned her a place on the 2020 International Booker Prize shortlist, and TheBookHangoverClub recommendations.
Ogawa rarely gives interviews and tends to stay out of the spotlight, letting her haunting, minimalist style speak for itself. However, in a 2019 New York Times interview, she described her writing process as quietly observing the world around her.
“The light through the window, the fragrance of tea, the sound of a distant bell”
She looks to uncover the mysteries hidden beneath the ordinary moments. Read more below about Yoko Ogawa, with the sources I used for research.
Sources
MacMillan Publishers | Penguin Random House | NY Times
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The first author we’re going to highlight is from our first book recommendation, Chain-Gang All Stars, written by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.
Nana’s writing is bold, unflinching, and completely his own. His debut collection, Friday Black, stood out for the way it confronted racism, violence, and consumer culture with sharp satire and emotional weight (early snippet for a future book review).
Chain-Gang All Stars, our first book recommendation, pushes even further. It imagines a dystopian prison system where inmates fight for survival in a televised competition. The story doesn’t just entertain, it forces readers to sit with uncomfortable questions about justice and humanity.
He studied at Syracuse University and has been featured in The New York Times and The Paris Review. His work is fearless and thought-provoking, the kind that sticks with you long after the last page.
Here is his website to check out more about his work!