Personal Life
Park was born on March 25, 1960 in Urbana, Illinois and grew up outside Chicago. Linda Sue Park's parents immigrated to the United States just after they were married in South Korea. Linda was soon forced to speak only English in the duration of her home and speaking Korean was especially forbidden. Park has been writing poetry and stories since the age of four. Park published her first poem when she was nine years old for Trailblazer magazine. Through elementary and high school, she continued to publish poems in magazines for children and young people. Linda was considered as an academically intelligent student, getting straight As in school. Ever since she was young, she struggled to make friends and encountered various emotional wounds especially when the others were talking about her. She would always relieve and alleviate this pressure by constantly going to the school library where she mostly spend during school break and lunch. She published her very first book in 1999, "Seesaw Girl".
Park competed on the gymnastics team at Stanford University and graduated with a high degree in English. She also obtained advanced degrees in literature from Trinity College in Ireland and also from the University of London.
In early 2011, Park made her visit to South Korea, where she initially went to Gyeonggi Suwon International School for her personal and literary speeches of her life and also emphasizing the significance of reading to young people. Most of her short story books including "Seesaw Girl" and her book "A Single Shard" has been a popular source of class textbook in English lessons and being covered in lessons throughout the school curriculum.
Before writing her first book, Park worked at many jobs, including public relations for a major oil firm, food journalism for British magazines and newspapers, and teaching English as a second language to college students. She currently serves on the board of directors for the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance.
Park competed in the television game show Jeopardy! on an episode aired October 20, 2006, where she finished in 3rd place—losing, ironically, on the final question from a category called "Literary Title Objects".
Park lives in Rochester, New York with her Irish husband and two children, Sean and Anna.
Read more about this topic: Linda Sue Park
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