Why Bestselling Korean-NZ author Graci Kim had to cancel US tour

Bestselling Korean-NZ author Graci Kim has been forced to pull the pin on a string of US school visits lined up to mark the launch of her latest book, Dreamslinger.

The highly-anticipated book, due for release 29 April, is the first of a new middle-grade fantasy series and follows the author's New York Times bestselling Gifted Clans trilogy of 2021.

In a Facebook post this week, Kim said school visits in the US had become increasingly difficult to secure due the "current political climate" and "particularly so for certain groups of writers".

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In an interview with RNZ, Kim said schools had concerns around her visits becoming targets for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion culture war in the US.

"I can only share what I heard, which is that because of my Korean name, my Korean heritage and because my books draw inspiration from my culture, sometimes my mythology as well, my visit can be perceived not just as an author visit, but specifically as a diversity and inclusion kind of initiative, and that could draw scrutiny from the school's board or that kind of thing," Kim said.

The author's Facebook post noted that school visits made up the "lion's share" of how middle-grade authors reached their readers.

Kim told RNZ the decision to pull the US leg of the tour wasn't really in her hands.

"It's not that I decided to cancel, I would have loved to have gone, but I couldn't go. It wasn't really that I made the choice, it's that there was nothing for me to do there."

Kim's US tour would have involved school visits across six states in the US, as well as public-facing events at bookstores and libraries.

"The last thing I wanted to achieve by sharing that little tidbit in my post was not to victimise myself, not to paint this really bleak picture, even if the circumstances are really bleak.

"Maybe the reason books are targeted is because books are so powerful, they have such an amazing ability to build empathy and move people, create understanding and foster this kind of compassion. Maybe it's why books are so sensitive and can be so contentious and I feel like if that is the case then maybe I'm doing something right."

Kim said there could be other reasons why the tour was called off - scheduling difficulties due to school terms and holidays, decreases in school budgets, or even just changing reading patterns in young people, which she heard was an issue since Covid impacted literacy rates.

"I can only speculate on the reasons... but the reason I made that statement, and gave that specific example, is that was the proof in writing in my inbox as to why these school visits for me were falling apart.

"Specifically, there was this fear that teachers and librarians were feeling that inviting someone like me would potentially be risky for them, would be something that might not be safe for them.

"It's a hard one, because these people don't have to tell me the reasons, they could just say no, but the reason I was so affected by it was because these teachers were so conflicted, they felt so apologetic, I could feel that sense of fear in what they were saying like, we really would love to have you but we're essentially worried about how this may impact them."

Kim planned to continue writing books that meant something to her readers.

"I really don't want to make this into a 'poor me' victimisation of the situation, I just really want people to know that, yes, this is happening, but we as writers, we won't stop, we will continue writing, and there are people supporting us despite the situations that are challenging us, there are teachers and librarians reaching out to me telling me this because they care, and they want me to understand how difficult and trying these times are.

"In the US, this is anecdotal but from my writer friend circles, there's definitely a drop in school visits from my POC [People of Colour] writer friends who do make quite a lot of their living out of these school visits and they're feeling it.

"They might not get clear messaging of why school visits are suddenly harder to book for them, but it's factually happening in terms of lower school visits. Also friends in the LGBTQ writer circles, definitely feeling it as well, it's happening."

Disney, Kim's US publisher, had already made moves on organising future events in the US.

Meanwhile, the author has New Zealand school visits planned as part of the book tour in May, including a celebration launch party at Auckland's Dorothy Butler children's bookstore on 10 May and an appearance at the Auckland Writer's Festival on 17 May.