Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung

Kim Ronyoung was the pen name of Gloria Hahn (1926-1987), a Korean American writer who was born and raised in Los Angeles's Koreatown. After her children graduated from college, Kim earned a bachelor of arts in Far Eastern art and culture at San Francisco State University. She was a docent at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Throughout her life, Kim wrote many poems, short stories, and essays. Her first and only novel, Clay Walls, was the first major novel focusing on the experiences of Korean immigrants and Korean Americans in the United States. It was published in 1987, shortly before her death. Kim passed away on February 3, 1987, at the age of sixty, after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. David Cho (introduction) is director of multicultural development at Wheaton College and specializes in late-nineteenth- to twentieth-century American literature, American ethnic literature, and Asian Pacific American literature.