Rebecca F. Kuang
@kuangrf
Followers
88K
Following
15K
Media
106
Statuses
916
PhD @Yale/Marshall Scholar/sinophone + asian american lit/The Poppy War trilogy/BABEL: AN ARCANE HISTORY/YELLOWFACE out now
Joined January 2012
oh my lord. what a day. BABEL is a #1 New York Times bestseller. i got off the call and cried. deep love and gratitude to my team at William Morrow. today i hung out with a barn owl. her name is Dusty. York is beautiful!!!! i am so tired. good night all!!!! 🙏❤️❤️❤️
131
318
6K
my Polish publisher dropped their covers of BABEL today (translation out on March 3.) they always knock it out of the park - I’m really excited to hold these in my hands. ❤️
38
380
5K
saw a jacket cover illustration for BABEL yesterday that made my jaw drop.
36
289
5K
me in my happy place: absolutely surrounded by books ❤️❤️❤️
21
152
4K
me and the fantasy romance about rival magician phd students who literally go to Hell and fall in love that i said i wasn't going to write and then started writing
44
107
3K
BABEL gets its own window displays now 😭🙏❤️❤️❤️ stepped out the taxi and was gob smacked 😭😭 they spray painted jenga blocks silver and wrote the word ‘translate’ on then…if you know you know
17
122
3K
omg it finally happened 😂 i was browsing at my fav local indie when i overheard someone ask a bookseller if BABEL was in stock 🙈🙈 i could not resist popping around the corner and saying hi and that i’d sign his copy when it came into the store! i hope that wasn’t weird!!.
36
33
3K
my childhood friend who i used to meet up with in the woods and play Warrior cats with just reached out and asked if i was the same rebecca it has been like two decades i am reeling.
18
45
3K
writing my next fantasy novel at a cafe. explain to fiancé i’m having a difficult time presenting a comprehensive account of wrongness and sins in Hell. he reaches into backpack and hands me this
30
93
3K
reorganizing my bookshelves for the new semester and thought i'd share - this stack has been at the top of my main shelf for two years, and they're all texts i consulted heavily while writing BABEL. i have to move them to make space for second year coursework now, but -
30
216
3K
unfortunately i am getting really into writing my academia-not-a-romcom-romcom-in-Hell book. (i have a working title but alas i am 90% sure the powers that be will shoot it down)
38
128
3K
i'm afraid when i told my publishers "Book 6 is magician academics rom-com set in hell" what i meant was "endless rabbit holes of math, logic paradoxes, paradoxes of rational choice, plato, aristotle, mind body dualism, Dante riffs, and theories of eternal recurrence".
27
98
3K
found out today that the Indonesian edition of THE BURNING GOD has been confirmed, which is thrilling because the cover illustrations by @davidalojaya remain my favorites of the trilogy. Can't wait to see what the TBG cover looks like!!!
29
346
3K
i don't even have the words. i am sprawled horizontal in shock. thank you.
The winner of Book of the Year: Fiction (supported by @GHmagazine) is the incredibly powerful BABEL by @kuangrf! The judges were all in agreement that this was an "event book" of 2022! @HarperVoyagerUK #BritishBookAwards #Nibbies
65
188
2K
me: BABEL has quite enough alternate covers.The Librarian Box: hold my pimm's
38
74
2K
me being unhinged about to go see my book in a bookstore for the first time
19
26
2K
if you let an author loose during tour she just runs around buying more books with her signing discount 😂😂☠️☠️☠️
11
43
2K
i had to record a dozen marketing videos today so took some selfies while i was at it 🥰 i can’t hold them all and show off the covers comfortably anymore!
7
69
2K
just heard that BABEL is into its sixth printing after its first month on shelves!! as my editor put it, it just keeps on rolling. thanks to everyone who read it, liked it, and shared it with friends. I'm overwhelmed by the support for this book ❤️.
28
60
2K
i cannot believe my fiance came in and woke me up from my jetlagged slumber because "i need you to help me remember what movie score something is from" and then tunelessly sang "ba BUM DUN DUN DUN. and then it gets sadder?" and then stared at me expectantly like i would know.
24
31
2K
critical part of the writing process i call “sitting in the train and putting on music and thinking about your characters doing things and feeling lots of Strong Feelings”.
8
179
2K
only twenty-seven days until this book goes from the printing press and is available on SHELVES! yes i'm literally counting down the days i have never been so excited for a release in my entire life!!!
26
103
2K
i’m about to start doing giveaways of wax stamped BABEL galleys because whew 🥵🥵😱
98
58
2K
and i’ve just landed to discover an email from my UK publisher that BABEL is a Sunday times bestseller as well. that makes BABEL an instant national and international bestseller 😭🙏🫠 i don’t even know what to say. i just can’t believe it.
33
50
2K
i have been very blessed with all the BABEL special editions. the @FairyLoot version has absolutely heartbreaking character illustrations 😭
17
145
2K
the man who checked me out of my hotel told me he’d enjoyed THE POPPY WAR and had BABEL coming on order 🥺😭 i was already emotional about leaving London but that just did me in this morning 😭😭❤️.
7
10
2K
Polish readers - this was announced yesterday; BABEL will be out in translation in Poland in February 2023! and - fingers crossed, class schedule allowing, confirmation pending - I will be in Warsaw in April to celebrate 🥳🥳.
29
199
2K
not my dad badgering me about when my books will get adapted to film because he’s “getting old” and his “acting career is almost over” 😂😂😂 (…he doesn’t have an acting career).
12
25
2K
my fiancé is recovering from oral surgery and isn’t allowed to laugh or smile and so this is a really trying time for us because i am so hilarious 😔😔 please keep us in your thoughts 😂😂.
6
27
2K
the BABEL paperback edition, when it comes out down the line, will return to the silver lettering I wanted from the beginning. very happy about this. (plus catch that updated line at the top 🥰)
19
62
2K
thrilled that BABEL has been nominated for a Nebula award ❤️ all my love and thanks to folks who voted.
10
54
2K
my publicist just hand sold BABEL to a guy at B&N while i was in the restroom and said if he waited he could get it signed and he didn’t want it signed but he did buy the book 😂😂😂🙏.
15
6
1K
BABEL remains a national bestseller in its second week. and it keeps selling out everywhere! lovely news to hold onto as i prepare to stagger into class, bleary-eyed and still jetlagged clutching my half-coherent notes on 200+ pages of Freud 😂.
12
18
1K
✨FIFTEEN DAYS UNTIL BABEL!!!! ✨Today, I've finally put up a comprehensive pre-order guide to all the signed and special editions that still have stock left on my website - link in my bio. I hope it's helpful! Which cover is your favorite?
22
99
1K
riding the train with my fiancé on our way to kick off the BABEL tour. i fall asleep. wake up, glance over, and what do i see on his phone?? he is googling MOVIE SHOWTIMES during my EVENTS ☠️☠️☠️.
5
11
1K
What lovely news to wake up to. Thank you very much to everyone at SFWA who voted ❤️ putting a spring in my step as I head into a whirlwind launch week!!!.
42
91
1K
ME REALIZING ITS THE VERY FIRST BOOK YOU SEE IN THE WHOLE STORE
8
40
1K
this is so sad but i love UK pubs because they let me do half pints. no US pub has ever let me do half pints. i am a hobbit. i cannot do full pints. anyways very excited to be in London to kick off the UK Babel tour!!!.
13
11
1K
illumicrate has made BABEL so beautiful 😭😭😭 thank you to @nicodelort for the original cover illustration and the @illumicrate design team for this piece of art, it feels so special to hold this 🙏
12
54
1K
off we go to our last stop of this tour - Bath, tonight! am i flagging? i promise i hide it well 😂🙈
13
22
1K
10 DAYS TO BABEL!!!! the final countdown! here's a selfie I took in March 2021 right after I turned in the first draft and immediately began nervously anticipating my editors' thoughts. so much has happened in the last year, and not just to my bangs 😂 and so much is yet to come!
5
19
1K
not me overhearing my fiance in the shower practicing little lines of small talk to use with the undergrads he's teaching 🥺.
5
7
1K
my parents sent me a photo of the BABEL display at their local B&N @BNBoulder 🥺❤️❤️ now i will assume my mom did not sneak in there with flowers but i will not put it past her 😂😂❤️
10
19
1K
in the midst of all this book launch craziness we also chose our wedding venue today i am 🥺🥺🥺.
15
5
1K
don't know why my UK team thinks it's appropriate to just send me photos of the hardcover without appropriate WARNING 😭🙏
14
67
1K
not my fiancé muttering he wished he’d brought a book as we are literally on our way to launch events at BOOKSTORES.
5
10
1K
i’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff in BABEL giveaway entries but this tiktoker just wrote me an entire SCORE and it is perfect for this book i fell to the ground omfggg
7
63
1K
got a little burst of joy from this spot of honor at my campus bookstore ❤️❤️❤️ four stealth signed copies are now on the table…
3
16
1K
i've been waiting to announce this one because holy mother of god. @binding_broken KILLED it. this is the only edition of BABEL that will have red elements and there will only 1500 copies. they're signed and numbered, and they'll go on sale in mid-August 🔥
24
69
1K
one ridiculous thing my fiance and i have started doing when discussing difficult topics is he goes "LEND ME YOUR EARS O REBECCAMEDES" and i toss my arm in the air and yell "SPEAK! SPEAK O BENICLES!".
5
13
1K
got bangs to prepare for BABEL season 💥💥. anyways Faron of Faron Salon in Cambridge is my new mom now and i am telling everyone in the area to get your hair cut there because wow she knows what she’s doing!!!
8
10
986
we really do enjoy dropping new book news from me in the most chaotic way possible. YELLOWFACE is out summer 2023 😈😌.
10
71
982
this is insane lol.
16
15
986
today i find myself with far more author copies of BABEL in my apartment then i could ever have use for. if you are a teacher/librarian and would like a copy for your classroom or library please let me know in the comments. US only (sorry, shipping is $$)
68
98
976
YELLOWFACE is officially a bestseller. we celebrated with tea and scones over here in Canterbury. this is such a weird, absurd, furious, risky novel - thank you for being so kind about my goblin era book and for mucking around in these questions with me 🙏❤️
15
52
958
i’m a HarperCollins author and none of my books would ever get produced the way they do without all the brilliant editorial marketing and publicity staff who deserve better. i love my harper team and i want the best for them!! solidarity and waiting for a fair contract ❤️.
1
107
931
tonight, i had some MIT folks from B’s department come teach me all the math and logic i need to know to write this next fantasy book! it was lovely but everyone is very upset at @katieoneuro for her mathy witchcraft 😭😭
9
13
959
currently begging a Yale prof to let me audit his class on the mortality of the soul. philosophy twitter send me good vibes.
6
8
930
"here let me draw it" then he drew four lines on a sheet of paper. just like, four short identical lines. i cannot believe i am marrying this person.
13
3
905
the way my team facetimed me giggling last night just as i was getting into bed 😂❤️🙏 we've landed two books on the NYT bestsellers list in less than a year. unbelievable. grateful to everyone who's helped me bring this ridiculous book into the world ❤️❤️❤️
14
40
889
it is now BABEL month, so please excuse me if I start excessively sharing all the kind things people have said about this book ❤️❤️ Kirkus really liked it!!
7
41
878
4 DAYS TO BABEL!!!! yesterday we took over the basement of @HarvardBooks (whose booksellers are absolute angels for putting up with me 😅🙏) armed with sharpies and bubble tea and got all your pre-orders signed, personalized, doodled, and ready to ship ❤️
8
38
873
hi NYC 🥰🥰 i spent the afternoon signing books at @BNUnionSqNYC and now there is a whole table ❤️❤️❤️ shoutout to the folks randomly reading BABEL in the cafe who came up to get their books personalized you made my day!!!
8
26
844
twelve days to BABEL!!! todays fun update: we are already in a second printing in the US, and had to increase the first printing in the UK 😱😱😱. also the shop where i get my houseplants sent me a DM because they saw a tiktok about my book and i consider that Making It 😂😂❤️.
10
13
846
17 days to BABEL!!!! today’s fun news: my author copies of the US hardcover arrived today (i always ship some to my parent’s place) and my dad was very excited about it
6
14
844
nearly weeping with relief because i've spent all week kicking myself for not being able to write because of covid and today i went outside and just stared at my manuscript and a bunch of things cascaded into clarity and i feel my creative gears turning again 😭.
4
3
837
BABEL is one of Goodreads readers' most anticipated books of the summer! "Nerds of sufficient intensity" is a lovely way to describe my audience that I haven't seen before 😂 See y'all in just over two months, nerds.
8
36
774
i want to push myself with every book, try out new genres, and constantly expand my range. but sometimes i think writing about scholars messing up their lives is just my happy place.
1
14
787
honored that BABEL has been shortlisted for the British Book Awards. ❤️❤️🙏.
Congratulations to our Fiction shortlistees @kuangrf, @StephenKing, Monica Ali, @officialnhaynes, Maggie O'Farrell and @Doug_D_Stuart!. Supported by @GHmagazine #BritishBookAwards #Nibbies
14
34
753
SIX DAYS TO BABEL!!! today's bit of fun: an 1830s map of Oxford gifted to me by my fiance's grandfather. at the top you can see the college crests - including Univ, where our main characters live! it's going on the wall over my writing desk, as soon as I can get some nails 🥰
2
49
767
i do a pretty good job keeping my writing life outside of the classroom but my classmate just asked if i was interested in leading a seminar discussion with prompts about untranslateability and difficult translation choices i giggled 🙈.
8
15
747
i’m at a summer program orientation in Venice and the Italian students are trying to explain chicago deep dish to each other and one guy has just authoritatively declared “it is like a cheesecake?”.
8
13
753
the sheer whiplash of getting home from a international book tour to doing hours of reading in prep for four hours of seminar tomorrow 🥲 i am behind 🥲 pray for me 🙏.
9
9
727
thank you NYC for a most wonderful two days!!!! what a way to launch. i had an amazing time visiting bookstores, trying your inferior pizza (😂😂 sorry CT >>>), and meeting readers!!! next up: boston, where we will launch in a whole MOVIE THEATER tonight!! see you soon! ❤️❤️
4
14
701
got my cream tea, got my table in front of the radcam. so many feelings being back 😭 see y’all tomorrow…
8
7
696
oh goodness. this was the first thing i saw this morning and now i am very emotional.
@kuangrf, students of the Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford University (Exeter) all picked up copies of BABEL & have been absolutely devouring it. Brilliant story set in a wondrous city. Thanks for the book (and the delightful references)!
1
23
695
ok which one of you sent me this gorgeous stamp because oh my god!!! i’m never hand signing anything ever again!
2
6
688
my fiancé wants everyone to know i was crying about Dusty, not the NYT list. i don’t know. maybe that’s true. Dusty is beautiful. we had some champagne. (just us not Dusty, who is an owl) idk it’s been a big night. here are some more pictures of me and Dusty LOL GOOD NIGHT
10
12
663
i will be writing exclusively to the Sandman soundtrack until this Hell book is finished. thank you 🙏.
2
5
649
some photos from my @hayfestival with @thatkirstylang. this tour experience has been an absolute dream. we found out this morning YELLOWFACE has hit the hardcover fiction list at Number 1, so lots of fizz and jumping for joy here in Edinburgh. thank you thank you thank you 🙏❤️❤️
14
23
645
just heard from my UK editor that BABEL has made the Sunday Times bestsellers list for a second week 🥳🥳 a nice boost to take into this week as my head is spinning from all the Zhuangzi translation work I’m doing for class. classical chinese is a wholly different beast 😭.
2
8
624
this was wild - thank you all for making it work!! i'm glad we got every book signed! now back off to the east coast for my final US tour stop, and then the UK tour begins. .
The record for fastest signing ever at a VWF event goes to @kuangrf, who made sure to sign books for every fan in line after a spellbinding, sold out event with @eddyautomatic before jetting off to the next stop on her tour!
3
16
637
a lot of people have been tagging me (and BABEL) in this and it's great ❤️. a fun phrase I learned recently in French: "Il fait froid de canard" - it's very cold, lit. it's a duck's cold, comes from duck-hunting season! . Il fait froid de canard cette semaine à New Haven!! 🥶😭.
Non-native English Speakers, what’s a word from your language that you think is perfect that doesn’t have an English equivalent?. Take us to church.
9
20
634