Susan Choi

Susan Choi – Life, Career, and Literary Vision

Explore the life and work of Susan Choi, acclaimed American novelist. Learn about her multicultural background, major works (Trust Exercise, American Woman, Flashlight), writing style, themes, and legacy.

Introduction

Susan Choi (born 1969) is an American novelist celebrated for her emotionally incisive and formally ambitious fiction. Her work explores identity, memory, power dynamics, and the intersections of personal lives with historical forces. In 2019, she won the National Book Award for Fiction for Trust Exercise, and her more recent novel Flashlight (2025) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

With roots in both Korean and Jewish American heritage, Choi draws from a layered sense of belonging and displacement. Her work moves fluidly between intimate psychological portraiture and sweeping historical narratives, often interrogating the boundaries of personal truth.

Early Life and Education

Susan Choi was born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1969. Houston, Texas. High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Choi went on to study at Yale University, earning a B.A. in Literature in 1990. Cornell University. The New Yorker as a fact-checker.

Career & Major Works

Debut and Early Novels

• Choi’s first novel, The Foreign Student (1998), introduces many of her enduring concerns—cultural displacement, interrogation of memory, and power in relationships. The Foreign Student won the Asian American Literary Award for Fiction.

• Her second novel, American Woman (2003), draws loosely from the 1970s era of radical politics and the Patty Hearst kidnapping. Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2004.

• A Person of Interest (2008) probes themes of surveillance, guilt, and ambiguity. It was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.

• My Education (2013) explores a complicated academic affair and questions of power and desire. The novel won the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction.

Trust Exercise and Recognition

In 2019, Choi published what many regard as a landmark work: Trust Exercise. Trust Exercise won the National Book Award for Fiction.

Flashlight and Expanding Reach

Choi’s sixth novel, Flashlight (2025), builds on her ambition for scale and scope. The New Yorker, the narrative spans multiple decades, continents, and identities. Flashlight was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.

Themes, Style & Influence

Identity, Belonging & Displacement

Because of her multicultural heritage, themes of identity, hybridity, and statelessness frequently inform Choi’s work. In Flashlight, the character Serk carries multiple names and lives across Japan, Korea, and the United States, reflecting disjointed national histories. Choi also investigates how memory, secrecy, and suppression shape personal histories.

Power, Authority & Subjectivity

In Trust Exercise, she destabilizes the reader’s trust in narration and explores how authority—teacher, peer, institution—shapes perception and control. A Person of Interest).

Historical Overlays & Intersections

Choi often weaves personal narrative with political or historical undercurrents—radical politics in American Woman, geopolitical identity in Flashlight, the Korean War backdrop in The Foreign Student.

Structural Innovation & Narrative Play

Her fiction sometimes unsettles conventional chronology, uses multiple narrators or unreliable perspectives, and invites readers to reconsider what is “true.” Trust Exercise is often cited for its ambitious structural turns.

Teaching, Roles & Contributions

Susan Choi is a professor in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University. PEN America.

Over the years, she has received numerous honors and awards, including:

• Asian American Literary Award for Fiction (for The Foreign Student)

• PEN/W. G. Sebald Award (2010)

• Lambda Literary Award for My Education

• Guggenheim and NEA fellowships

• Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award (for Flashlight)

Lessons & Takeaways from Susan Choi

1. Ambition in scale is possible. Choi shows it’s possible to move from psychologically tight novels to sweeping historical sagas while remaining emotionally present.

2. Complexity can be accessible. Even as she experiments, her stories never lose human stakes—readers feel deeply invested.

3. Heritage matters. Choi’s personal background gives her insight into diasporic identities and the costs of historical erasure.

4. Narrative trust is fragile. She challenges readers to question their assumptions about reliability, authority, and “truth” in fiction.

5. The personal is political. Her books remind us that individual lives often reflect broader historical forces—not as backdrop, but as active participants.

Conclusion

Susan Choi is a writer of striking range, fearlessness, and quiet power. From The Foreign Student to Trust Exercise and now Flashlight, she continues to expand her vision—exploring identity, memory, power, and the boundaries between public and private history.