Sunwoo Jeong is a Korean writer living in NYC and Seoul in alternation. She is an academic linguist by day and an author by night. Her work has appeared in Split Lip, Fantasy, Lightspeed, and Uncanny Magazine, among others, and has been included in the Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist. A Kundiman Fellow and a Clarion alum, Sunwoo is currently working on a collection of linked short stories and a novel. “Permanent Press” is her second appearance in Uncanny, a poignant and dreamlike tale of family, hard choices, and an unusual laundromat.
Uncanny Magazine: “Permanent Press” is a story about decisions—with all the uncertainty and fear they can bring—set in a surreal world with a quirky laundry-mat. What did you know about the story before you started drafting? What did you discover as you were writing it?
Sunwoo Jeong: I began with an image of the blinking neon sign, LA NDRY and L UNDRY. I thought they could be people—two people that are in some sense one, sort of like cosmic counterparts. I had a sense they would miss each other; I wanted to capture that longing. The ambience of the nighttime laundromats also guided me in the early stage of drafting. As I wrote, I discovered that the center of gravity was shifting more to Jo’s story, and the choices that she’s faced with. The characters of Moe and Grams got fleshed out bit by bit as well. Along the way, I discovered that Mr. Lee was surprisingly quippy, and that there can be a wealth of mysterious connections between the laundromat and the deep sea.
Uncanny Magazine: What research did you do for this story? Did you learn anything that surprised you?
Sunwoo Jeong: I’m not sure if I can call it research, but I sort of skulked around the neighborhood cleaners, trying to imbibe the atmosphere. I loved seeing all the colorful bobbins, the people at work, and the neatly wrapped clothes. Something I learned is how dry-cleaned clothes are delivered in NYC. (I myself am too lazy to sport clothes that require dry cleaning!) People sort of wheel them about in the street, hung on a peg. I’ve seen the deliverers out and about in the morning, and around two p.m. as well. I’ve also once seen a woman wheeling a bird cage, right behind a man wheeling the dry-cleaned clothes. Was there a connection between the two? I don’t know.
Uncanny Magazine: On Wednesday night, the characters gather at Grams’s for Sichuan food and K-drama, which sounds like a wonderful evening. If you could pick anything you wanted, what would your perfect meal + bingeable show combination be?
Sunwoo Jeong: I love Sichuan food, and more generally, spicy food of all kind. I’ll probably go with tteokbokki, extra spicy, and Elementary, which has been my comfort show for some years. There exists a lot of Sherlock Holmes retellings, but that one happens to be my favorite one.
Uncanny Magazine: Do you leave literary Easter eggs in stories for your readers to find? Are there any in this story that you’d like to call attention to?
Sunwoo Jeong: I do. The laundry-mat shares a neighborhood with a couple of my other stories. Characters and places from them make cameo appearances, like Madame Moira, Ms. Lapoor, and the French-Korean restaurant, Emo Volant. The latter is featured in a recent story of mine, “The Lexicon of Lethe.”
Uncanny Magazine: Who are some of your literary influences? What is something you’ve read recently and loved?
Sunwoo Jeong: Virginia Woolf was formative for me, though perhaps more as a reader. Her prose will always have a special place in my heart. When it comes to my love of fantasy and speculative fiction, C. S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Susanna Clarke, and Kelly Link’s work have been greatly influential. Not super recent, but I loved reading Elaine Dundy’s The Dud Avocado.
Uncanny Magazine: What are you working on next?
Sunwoo Jeong: I’m working on a couple other loosely linked stories that take place in the same universe as “Permanent Press.” Ms. Lapoor will probably be a prominent character in one of them. I’m also noodling on a novel.
Uncanny Magazine: Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!
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