Clay Walls

＂Kim Ronyoung tells the story of Haesu and Chun, immigrants who fled Japanese-occupied Korea for Los Angeles in the decade prior to World War II, and their American-born children＂--

Kim Ronyoung was the pen name of Gloria Hahn (1926-1987) a Korean American writer who was born and raised in Los Angeles’s Koreatown. After her children graduated from college, Kim earned a Bachelor of Arts in Far Eastern Art and Culture at San Francisco State University. She was a docent at the Asian Museum of Art in San Francisco. Throughout her life, Kim wrote many poems, short stories and essays. Her first and only novel, ＂Clay Walls＂, was the first major novel focusing on the experiences of Korean immigrants and Korean Americans in the United States. It was published in 1987, shortly before her death. Kim passed away on February 3, 1987, at the age of 60, after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. David Cho is Director of Multicultural Development at Wheaton College and specializes in Late 19th to 20th Century American Literature, American Ethnic Literature and Asian Pacific American Literature.