Autorentext

Maria Dong writes genre-bending suspense and is the author of Liar, Dreamer, Thief and Psychopomp. Her short fiction and essays have been published in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Lightspeed, Augur, Nightmare, Khoreo, Fantasy, Apex, and Apparition, and her story, "In the Beginning of Me, I was a Bird", was a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

Although she's currently a computer programmer, in her previous lives, Maria's held a variety of diverse careers, including property manager, English teacher, and occupational therapist. She lives with her partner in southwest Michigan in a centenarian saltbox house that is almost certainly haunted, watching K-dramas and drinking Bell's beer.

She is represented by Amy Bishop-Wysick at Trellis Literary. For film inquiries, please reach out to Addison Duffy and Orly Greenberg at United Talent Agency.

Klappentext

A young woman undertakes a terrifying journey--and a terrifying transformation--in this genre-blending speculative suspense novel set in South Korea and the US which mixes fantasy, gothic vibes and queer longing, with a shot of feminist body horror. Fairytales are for children.
Until the day we awaken in a place full of monsters,
being softly enveloped by the dark. Nineteen-year-old undocumented immigrant Hee-Jin lies on the floor of her cramped Seoul apartment, listening for footsteps. But the knock on the door isn't the police finally coming to deport her to North Korea. Instead, sprawled on the doorstep is a disfigured, bird-like corpse--and it has her eyes. Her younger sister, artist Hee-Young, is meant to be on an art program in America, not dead of a strange overdose. But in Hee-Young's pocket is a plane ticket and US passport. Seeing her chance for freedom, Hee-Jin steals her sister's identity and takes her place, determined to uncover what really happened to her. But the deeper she dives into the program's strange workings, the closer she gets to the monstrous secret at its heart. A page-turner of a mystery filled with gorgeous, creepy Korean folklore and imagery, Aviary, written by critically acclaimed Korean American author Maria Dong, is also a story about power, violence, exploitation**--**and transformation. And, above all, it's about the choices women make from within a system where all the available options are bad ones.