Nik Nadeau 임창훈
@nikchanghoon.bsky.social
Korean adoptee writer. '24 Annie Dillard Prize for CNF winner & Iowa Review Award finalist. '24-25 Bread Loaf, Tin House & Kenyon alum. CNF reader @ Hypertext Review. nikchanghoon.com
My new lyric essay is now out in The @kenyonreview.bsky.social! Read it here:
kenyonreview.org/piece/emotio...
kenyonreview.org/piece/emotio...
Emotionally Self-Aware Adoptive Parent: Contract for Services - The Kenyon Review
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kenyonreview.org
September 23, 2025 at 8:33 PM
My new lyric essay is now out in The @kenyonreview.bsky.social! Read it here:
kenyonreview.org/piece/emotio...
kenyonreview.org/piece/emotio...
Just updated my writer bio (nikchanghoon.com) and you know what? It makes me smile. My deepest thanks to every instructor, mentor & fellow artist who's carried me (not to mention my literal words) forward, when "forward" can often feel like falling behind, falling asleep, or just plain falling.
July 29, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Just updated my writer bio (nikchanghoon.com) and you know what? It makes me smile. My deepest thanks to every instructor, mentor & fellow artist who's carried me (not to mention my literal words) forward, when "forward" can often feel like falling behind, falling asleep, or just plain falling.
It began with a prompt at the 2024 Kenyon Review Writers Workshop: "Write a lyric essay that takes on an unexpected form." I wrote something, revised & delivered it at the participant reading, and was encouraged to submit it. Still in disbelief that it will appear in the @kenyonreview.bsky.social!
April 7, 2025 at 3:47 PM
It began with a prompt at the 2024 Kenyon Review Writers Workshop: "Write a lyric essay that takes on an unexpected form." I wrote something, revised & delivered it at the participant reading, and was encouraged to submit it. Still in disbelief that it will appear in the @kenyonreview.bsky.social!
There is no better feeling than meeting fellow adoptee writers who are committed to telling the historical & emotional truths about adoption #AWP25
April 2, 2025 at 6:08 PM
There is no better feeling than meeting fellow adoptee writers who are committed to telling the historical & emotional truths about adoption #AWP25
Adoptee writer power
Thank you to everyone who came out to the “Fighting Tropes, Changing Narratives: BIPOC Adoptees Break Out” panel at #AWP2025 this morning! ✊🏽😭😭
It met so much for us to share our work and be in conversation with us…Let’s keep it up!
@thesusanito.bsky.social @alicestephens.bsky.social
It met so much for us to share our work and be in conversation with us…Let’s keep it up!
@thesusanito.bsky.social @alicestephens.bsky.social
March 27, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Adoptee writer power
What @shannongibney.bsky.social said!
Pretty much impossible to sum up what today meant and felt like at the @adopteelitfest.bsky.social . 🙏🏾✨😭😭This was the crew of 16 of us in the final roundtable reading. So rare for adoptees to feel seen, heard, held, and celebrated. I will not be forgetting today anytime soon. I love this community.
March 23, 2025 at 11:37 AM
What @shannongibney.bsky.social said!
Blown away by the work of all these adoptee writers: youtube.com/@adopteelite...
Adoptee Literary Festival
The Adoptee Literary Festival brings together writers who self-identify as having been adopted, fostered, or otherwise displaced to share their stories, make their voices heard, and reshape the narrat...
youtube.com
March 22, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Blown away by the work of all these adoptee writers: youtube.com/@adopteelite...
My first adult memory of culture dysphoria: realizing my own language was written on the back of a package of photo paper, and not knowing exactly which one it was.
March 17, 2025 at 6:43 PM
My first adult memory of culture dysphoria: realizing my own language was written on the back of a package of photo paper, and not knowing exactly which one it was.
"Did you hit your word count goal today...?"
March 13, 2025 at 7:27 PM
"Did you hit your word count goal today...?"
Yesssssss
A little bit of really nice news—our picture book that touches on the Dakota Uprising, Indian boarding schools, chattel enslavement of captive Africans in the U.S., the Great Migration (as a result of ethnic cleansing), immigration, and 💛SCIENCE…is a One Book read! #minnesota #kidlit
Incredibly proud that the picture book WHERE WE COME FROM by Diane Wilson, @sunyungshin.bsky.social, @shannongibney.bsky.social, John Coy, and Dion MBD is a One Book | One Minnesota read this spring!
More details and resources here:
thefriends.org/minnesota-ce...
More details and resources here:
thefriends.org/minnesota-ce...
March 11, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Yesssssss
Contacted my legislators to urge restored funding for #Fulbright & #CriticalLanguageScholarship (CLS) programs. I reunited with my first mother while on a Fulbright grant in 2010 and met her again after supervising the CLS Korea program in 2016. My life literally would not be the same without them.
March 11, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Contacted my legislators to urge restored funding for #Fulbright & #CriticalLanguageScholarship (CLS) programs. I reunited with my first mother while on a Fulbright grant in 2010 and met her again after supervising the CLS Korea program in 2016. My life literally would not be the same without them.
I'm so glad I have a dog whose boundless energy motivates me to get up and write
March 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I'm so glad I have a dog whose boundless energy motivates me to get up and write
An old essay I wrote for my Korean language class ~2008. I am describing my search & reunion and clearly struggling to do so in a grammatically correct way. 3rd sentence: "I also thought a lot about whether my birth mother wouldn't want to meet me even if I wanted to meet her."
March 8, 2025 at 3:10 PM
An old essay I wrote for my Korean language class ~2008. I am describing my search & reunion and clearly struggling to do so in a grammatically correct way. 3rd sentence: "I also thought a lot about whether my birth mother wouldn't want to meet me even if I wanted to meet her."
For adoptees, what is "speculation" other than our everyday existence? Not just our alternate (non-adopted) worlds & selves, but also: what if our second parents understood adoption as a capitalist system? our first parents spoke fluent English? our searches & reunions actually worked out? etc. etc.
March 7, 2025 at 6:21 PM
For adoptees, what is "speculation" other than our everyday existence? Not just our alternate (non-adopted) worlds & selves, but also: what if our second parents understood adoption as a capitalist system? our first parents spoke fluent English? our searches & reunions actually worked out? etc. etc.
Processing lately: how unconditional love can also include my own agency, boundaries & grieving over what a family member is unable to be or provide. That it's ok to be purely selfish to understand how I would want to be loved, accept how I am actually loved & grieve (let go of?) the difference
March 4, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Processing lately: how unconditional love can also include my own agency, boundaries & grieving over what a family member is unable to be or provide. That it's ok to be purely selfish to understand how I would want to be loved, accept how I am actually loved & grieve (let go of?) the difference
Last night I made 떡볶이 (spicy Korean rice cake). I cook Korean food often but typically not 떡볶이and fortunately it turned out Korean wife-approved. These small victories mean a lot to me, more than I'm sometimes willing to admit. #KoreannessReclamationProject
February 28, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Last night I made 떡볶이 (spicy Korean rice cake). I cook Korean food often but typically not 떡볶이and fortunately it turned out Korean wife-approved. These small victories mean a lot to me, more than I'm sometimes willing to admit. #KoreannessReclamationProject
This one should be good! @adoptionmosaic.bsky.social
February 26, 2025 at 3:55 PM
This one should be good! @adoptionmosaic.bsky.social
Started as a nonfiction reader for a lit mag recently. It's already helping me see my own writing in new ways. Also, people format SO differently.
February 26, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Started as a nonfiction reader for a lit mag recently. It's already helping me see my own writing in new ways. Also, people format SO differently.
I haven't heard from my first (birth) mother in a half year. Last time this happened, I was considering flying to Korea or hiring a PI. This time, with more context & processing, I am learning to accept that even if she explains later, there is much she chooses to withhold #thisisadoption
February 22, 2025 at 2:07 PM
I haven't heard from my first (birth) mother in a half year. Last time this happened, I was considering flying to Korea or hiring a PI. This time, with more context & processing, I am learning to accept that even if she explains later, there is much she chooses to withhold #thisisadoption
KAAN is offering three different versions of a webinar discussion on the PBS docu that came out last fall: linktr.ee/KAANcommunity
February 20, 2025 at 2:30 PM
KAAN is offering three different versions of a webinar discussion on the PBS docu that came out last fall: linktr.ee/KAANcommunity
One of the obsessions I've been writing into lately: short track speedskating. I imagine a lot, wish a lot, regret some about starting this sport so late. Leaning into turns (always left, lol) feels like what my body was designed to do. Hockey was ... not 😂
February 19, 2025 at 7:59 PM
One of the obsessions I've been writing into lately: short track speedskating. I imagine a lot, wish a lot, regret some about starting this sport so late. Leaning into turns (always left, lol) feels like what my body was designed to do. Hockey was ... not 😂
Can't imagine my memoir project, writing life nor my human heart w/o @tinhouse.bsky.social Winter Workshop & our brilliant CNF workshop leader @nicolechung.bsky.social. "Back to writing" never felt so good! Deep thanks to @almajor.bsky.social & Lance Cleland for investing so much in us as writers.
February 18, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Can't imagine my memoir project, writing life nor my human heart w/o @tinhouse.bsky.social Winter Workshop & our brilliant CNF workshop leader @nicolechung.bsky.social. "Back to writing" never felt so good! Deep thanks to @almajor.bsky.social & Lance Cleland for investing so much in us as writers.
Because some days, the name of the poet, teacher & mentor who's left an indelible mark on you & your writing over the past decade appears in your inbox, for the most glorious of reasons. Congrats, @sunyungshin.bsky.social !!! May 2026 can't come soon enough~
February 10, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Because some days, the name of the poet, teacher & mentor who's left an indelible mark on you & your writing over the past decade appears in your inbox, for the most glorious of reasons. Congrats, @sunyungshin.bsky.social !!! May 2026 can't come soon enough~
I ended up leaving my house like this yesterday. metaphor for: adhd life (actually real tho). korean-american cultural ID? light amid darkness? hip-spine misalignment?
January 29, 2025 at 3:28 PM
I ended up leaving my house like this yesterday. metaphor for: adhd life (actually real tho). korean-american cultural ID? light amid darkness? hip-spine misalignment?
Can't wait to return to this beautiful mountain for the 100th year of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, this time as a staff scholar! August can't come soon enough~
January 29, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Can't wait to return to this beautiful mountain for the 100th year of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, this time as a staff scholar! August can't come soon enough~