Rachel Khong

Rachel Khong
Khong at the 2024 National Book Festival
Born	1985 (age 39–40)
Education	Yale University University of Florida
Notable works	Goodbye, Vitamin Real Americans
Spouse	Eli Horowitz
Website
www.rachelkhong.com

Rachel Khong (born 1985) is an American writer and editor based in Los Angeles as of 2021.[1]

Life

Khong was born in Malaysia to a Malaysian Chinese family, but they soon moved to the United States when she was two.[2][3] She grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, California and attended high school in nearby Diamond Bar, California.[4]

Khong attended Yale University and graduated with a degree in English in 2007. In 2011, she received her MFA from the University of Florida,[5] where she studied with Padgett Powell.[6]

Khong is married to Eli Horowitz, co-creator of Gimlet's Homecoming podcast and former editor at McSweeney's.[7]

Career

After completing her graduate degree, Khong moved to San Francisco and worked in the food service industry.[8] She interned at McSweeney's while in college[8] and edited cookbooks for them after graduating. In 2011, Chris Ying of Lucky Peach, who Khong had met while interning at McSweeney's, asked her to be the managing editor of the magazine.[8] She later went on to become executive editor of Lucky Peach.[9]

Khong cofounded The Ruby in 2018, a female oriented co-working space based in Mission District, San Francisco.[10] She retired from managing the space and moved to Los Angeles in 2021.[1]

Writing

Khong's writing has appeared in publications such as American Short Fiction, Joyland, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She is the coauthor of a cookbook from Lucky Peach called All About Eggs.[11]

Her first novel, Goodbye, Vitamin, received Best Book of the Year honors from NPR,[12] O, The Oprah Magazine,[13] the San Francisco Chronicle,[14] and Vogue.[15] It was the winner of the California Book Award for first fiction.[16] The story was inspired by her grandmother's battle with Alzheimer's disease.[2] The novel won the 2017 California Book Award for First Fiction,[17] as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for First Fiction.[18] Universal Pictures optioned the film rights in June 2019, with Constance Wu attached to lead.[19]

FilmNation Entertainment announced on February 5, 2021 that they and Ali Wong are producing an adaptation of Khong's short story, The Freshening, with director Cathy Yan set to write and direct.[20] She has written book reviews for the New York Times, including of novels by Maria Kuznetsova[21] and Sarah Elaine Smith.[22]

Her second novel, Real Americans, was a New York Times bestseller.[23] The novel was chosen as the May 2024 Read with Jenna Book Club pick.[24]

Works

Novels

• Goodbye, Vitamin (2017, Henry Holt) ISBN 9781471159480, OCLC 1015212743[25][26]
• Real Americans (2024, Knopf) ISBN 9780593537251, OCLC 1374133903[27][28][29]

Short stories

• Khong, Rachel (2020-08-10). "The Freshening". The Paris Review.[30]

References

1. Ito, Robert (April 29, 2024). "How Rachel Khong Conjures Worlds, in Her Books and Beyond". The New York Times.
2. Khong, Rachel. "'How My Relationship With My Grandmother Inspired My Book'". bodyandsoul.com.au. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
3. Chung, Nicole (2024-04-30). "Rachel Khong on the Power and Potential of Not Knowing". Literary Hub. Retrieved 2024-10-26.
4. "Rachel Khong". yaledailynews.com. January 19, 2007. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
5. "News – Page 2 – MFA@FLA: Creative Writing". mfa.english.ufl.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
6. Tafoya, Angela; Velez, Jessica; Pang, Jeanine Celeste. "30 Under 30 S.F. — Rising Young Stars in San Francisco". www.refinery29.com. Michael O'Neal (photographer). Retrieved 2019-11-15.
7. "SPINE-Rachel Khong on Writing Goodbye, Vitamin". SPINE. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
8. "'Really Small Books Can Be Just as Ambitious as Big Ones': An Interview with Rachel Khong". Hazlitt. 2017-07-24. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
9. "Rachel Khong | Authors | Macmillan". US Macmillan. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
10. "Catapult | How Rachel Khong Built The Ruby, a Coworking Community for San Francisco Creatives | Anita Felicelli". Catapult. 2019-05-16. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
11. Lucky Peach All About Eggs by Rachel Khong, the editors of Lucky Peach | PenguinRandomHouse.com.
12. "'Goodbye, Vitamin' Is Sweet — But Not Sugarcoated". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
13. "Goodbye, Vitamin". Oprah.com. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
14. "Best of 2017: 100 recommended books". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
15. "These Were the Best Books We Read All Year". Vogue. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
16. "Rachel Khong". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2024-11-03.
17. "California Books Awards 2017".
18. Schaub, Michael. "L.A. Times Book Prize finalists include Joyce Carol Oates and Ta-Nehisi Coates; John Rechy receives lifetime achievement award". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
19. Kroll, Justin (2019-06-24). "Constance Wu to Star in 'Goodbye, Vitamin' Adaptation for Universal (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
20. Lang, Brent (2021-02-05). "Cathy Yan to Write, Direct Sci-Fi Comedy 'The Freshening' for FilmNation (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
21. Khong, Rachel (2021-04-13). "And Now, a Case for the Ordinary". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
22. "A Girl Goes Missing. A Loner Takes Her Place. (Published 2019)". 2019-07-30. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
23. "Real Americans by Rachel Khong: 9780593537251 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
24. Kaplan, Anna (April 4, 2024). "Jenna Bush Hager says her May 2024 pick is a book you'll 'fall madly in love with'". Today. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
25. "A Darkly Comic Novel About Turning 30 Without Growing Up". The New York Times. 2017-07-28. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
26. Felsenthal, Julia (2017-07-10). "Goodbye, Vitamin May Be the Best Novel You'll Read This Summer". Vogue. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
27. Chung, Nicole (2024-04-30). "Rachel Khong on the Power and Potential of Not Knowing". Literary Hub. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
28. Ito, Robert (2024-04-29). "How Rachel Khong Conjures Worlds, in Her Books and Beyond". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
29. Feng, Rhoda (April 30, 2024). "'Real Americans' asks: What could we change about our lives?". NPR.
30. Khong, Rachel (2018). "The Freshening". The Paris Review. Vol. Fall 2018, no. 226. ISSN 0031-2037. Retrieved 2021-02-06.

External links

• Rachel Khong's website
• Interview with the Asian-American Writer's Workshop