Keum Suk Gendry-Kim is not only redefining the graphic novel genre with her visual exploration of emotions; she has also become one of the most widely read Korean authors in recent years. Her mixture of intimate narrative and historical memory is always articulated from a feminine perspective, using direct and delicate lines. In Grass (Drawn & Quarterly, 2019), she recovers the silenced voices of women who were exploited during the Japanese occupation, and in The Waiting (Drawn & Quarterly, 2020) and My Friend Kim Jong-Un (Reservoir Books, 2025), she explores the collective trauma and the open wounds of the division of the two Koreas.  

In this conversation with Ester Torres-Simón, a specialist in the translation and dissemination of Korean literature and culture, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim show us that comics, a genre that is a major force in South Korea today, can be a powerful vehicle for reflecting on history.