Michelle Zauner is better known as Japanese Breakfast — the stage name for her indie rock outfit that just released the excellent Jubilee. But she’s about to be just as well-known for her gift for prose, which she used to write Crying in H Mart, a touching memoir about her mother’s death. And now, her book is getting the feature film treatment.
“It is a surreal thrill to have the opportunity to memorialize my mother in film, and I consider it of the highest honor to pursue that task alongside creative luminaries such as Stacey Sher, Jason Kim and Orion Pictures.”
Crying in H Mart started as a single essay Zauner wrote about processing the grief of losing her mom and the memories she had at the popular Korean-American supermarkets where she could buy ingredients to make her mom’s favorite dishes. That essay was published in the New Yorker before getting expanded into a full book and, now, a movie.
In the Summer Issue of RELEVANT, Zauner told us about processing the trauma of her loss and what she discovered about herself while writing the memoir. “I think I always lived with this real guilt that I was such a difficult child and teenager,” she said. “I didn’t realize how much I felt like I would learn about my mom and about myself.”
You can read more about Zauner’s story in Japanese Breakfast’s Year of Jubilee.