Jihoon Park

Hello, welcome to my site! My name is Jihoon and I am currently a PhD student in literature at UC Santa Cruz. I also hold an MFA in fiction from George Mason University. My critical writing focuses on autofiction, biofiction, and speculative topographies of biographical figures in contemporary literature. My novel, Stickman, is forthcoming in 2026 from 7.13 Books.

"Stickman takes us into the psychology of a school shooter and the pathology that leads him to do it. Jihoon Park is an astute craftsman and his wry, sometimes detached sometimes empathetic prose style uncovers a piece of Americana that is at once scary and fascinating. This first novel shows the promise of a great writer; it shows that uncommon ability to take a well-known scenario and defamiliarize it, making us understand it in a deeper and startling way. A writer to watch." —Helon Habila, author of Travelers

"Stickman probes the entanglement of violence, alienation, and masculinity. With black humor and deep anxiety, the novel examines the uneasy boundary between the everyday violence we’ve internalized and the extreme acts that few can bear to contemplate. An ambitious debut that asks charged questions." —Chia-Chia Lin, author of The Unpassing

"Jihoon Park has crafted an absorbing and intoxicating novel that probes the darkness at the center of modern masculinity. Park examines the raw and unsettling emotions of his characters with a voice that is highly intimate, humorous, and candid. The tension from the narrator’s obsession with a murderer compelled me to keep reading until the very end, which devastated me with its surreal anguish and vividness." —Nghiem Tran, author of We're Safe When We're Alone

“Park writes with precise, clear, enveloping prose. It is rare for a debut to feel so assured and complete. I will be reading everything this writer publishes.” —Alex Higley, author of True Failure