Giving up a secure career as a New Zealand diplomat to write children’s books wasn’t exactly what Graci Kim’s hardworking Korean immigrant parents had imagined for their eldest daughter.
“They still think I’m a little bit mad,” laughs Graci, 40.
“They worked around the clock, juggling multiple jobs, so my sisters and I could have opportunities. They wanted stability for us, not the hustle.”
But after more than a decade representing New Zealand overseas, Graci felt something was missing.
“Diplomacy is an incredible career,” she explains from her home in Auckland, where she lives with her diplomat husband Neil, 39, and six-year-old daughter, Skye.
“It gives you a wonderful lifestyle, where you meet lots of people and have pride in your job. I loved it, but it’s not a creative job. I always had this itch to make things.”
Graci tried a few other side businesses, including an interactive children’s book app, launching an online cooking show, which was picked up by the Food Channel, and making soft toys from people’s drawings.
“They all flopped!” she admits.
“But I wanted to be a mum one day and I knew the diplomatic life would be hard on a family. You’re moving countries every few years, travelling all the time. I wanted to be the parent doing the school runs.”
Taking the leap
Walking away from a successful career was a gamble, but it’s paid off. Today, Graci is a New York Times bestselling children’s author whose fantasy novels for eight to 12-year-olds have captured readers across the globe.
Her books have been translated into numerous languages, optioned by the Disney Channel, and Dreamslinger has won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the NZ Children’s and Young Adults Books Awards, and made the long list for the ASLA DANZ awards, which celebrate books that challenge stereotypes and celebrate diversity. Not bad for someone whose first book attempt (written in the storeroom of her sister’s pharmacy) was widely rejected by literary agents.
“Some outright said, ‘Don’t give up your day job,’” she laughs.
“But the nicest feedback I got was someone who said, ‘It’s obvious you’re new to this. Throw this book away and start again.’”
Finding her place
Her second attempt – after about 17 rewrites – became her first published book, The Last Fallen Star. It’s the journey of a girl who feels like she’s not fully part of either community – reflecting Graci’s own struggles growing up in New Zealand, not feeling completely Kiwi or Korean.
“We moved here when I was three and while it wasn’t as bad as some people’s experiences, I won’t sugarcoat it – there was bullying,” she recalls.
“Kids spat in my lunchbox and told me to go back to my own country. “I also realised that if you never see yourself on the page, you begin to believe you’re invisible. One time in primary school, we had to write about our families and I described mine as blonde-haired and blue-eyed. “I’d never seen anyone who looked like me in the books I was reading and I’d completely internalised this idea that heroes looked a certain way. I thought it was a rule.”
Writing for the next generation
Now Graci’s making sure another generation of children never feels that way. Her bestselling Gifted Clans trilogy draws on Korean mythology, while her new Slinger series offers a fresh Korean-inspired take on the magical school genre “as if Harry Potter met X-Men”.
“I wanted to write the books little Graci needed. I wanted kids to know they could be the hero too.”
She loves that young readers are embracing stories from different cultures.
“Following things like K-pop and Korean food, there’s so much curiosity about Korean culture now,” she says.
“It’s wonderful because diversity isn’t just about representation – reading books is one of the most powerful ways to grow empathy.”
Even now, Graci says it’s hard to get her head around her books being sold around the world. Instead of reading reviews, she prints out letters from young readers and pins them on her wall.
“When I’m having a hard day, I read them. If a child tells me one of my books gave them hope or helped them see the world differently… that’s success.”
When talking about how success looks for her, Graci says it’s not bestseller lists.
Making space for family
“For me, it’s that I’ve managed to build a life where I can be the volunteer parent on school trips, do the pick-ups and still have a career that challenges and fulfils me,” she smiles. “Skye only gets one childhood. The work will still be there.”
Graci squeezes writing into the gaps of family life, often tapping away on her phone until one or two in the morning in bed.
She recently spent weeks travelling New Zealand and speaking to thousands of schoolkids, encouraging them to become the authors of their own lives.
“I tell them they’re holding the pen to their own story. The world will tell you you’re not in control of your narrative, but you are. It’s your life – you get to decide whether you’re the hero, the victim or the villain. “I tell them if something feels impossible, sometimes you just have to make a little space in that word and turn ‘impossible’ into ‘I’m possible,’” she grins.
