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(Trust me, theres never been a hotter literary exploration of period sex.)
Photo: Jesse Dittmar
Vogue: How does it feel to haveExhibitout in the world?
Kwon:Well, Ive talked in public about how anxiety riddled I was leading up to publication.
Im hearing a lot about peoples lives, which Im very honored and glad to hear about.
Im hearing about peoples current divorces, their grief, their experiences of being queer and out in public.
The anxiety hasnt gone awayI keep waiting!
I was really hoping it would go away the day the book was published.
I was texting my friends, I havent died yet!
because I was so anxious that on some level I thought Id die before the book came out.
This book just came with so much terror for me.
How did editingKinkinform or affect the writing of this book?
I started working onExhibitin 2014, way before editing forKink, which started in 2017.
The first day came with a flurry of specifically UK writers and editors arguing thatKinkwas inherently misogynistic.
The connection between Jin and Lidija is so dynamic.
How did you go about conceiving of the complexity of their relationship?
Even though I took ballet and choreography classes, I just could not quite imagine it.
Thats when Jin, the photographer, became the narrator.
All too real and familiar!
Shes dazzled by Lidija as an artist and how uncompromising she is about her art.
Youre not separate from all of humanity because of what you want and who you are.
It seemed to come from this very real ancestral place, though.
Are there other books or pieces of art that figuratively held your hand as you wroteExhibit?
Oh God, yeah, absolutely.
and that really helped.
I talked with her a lot as I was writingExhibit, and I kept rereading her book.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
