Laure Mi Hyun Croset occupies a singular place in the francophone literary landscape: a Swiss writer of Korean origin, she has spent several years exploring the sensitive zones of identity, adoption, perception, and the intimate fractures that shape a life. Her work, often marked by incisive irony and rare lucidity, finely interrogates human trajectories and the nuances of the relation to oneself.
Being an author myself, it was a true pleasure to have the opportunity to interview Laure Mi Hyun Croset by email on July 23, 2026, from Switzerland. I believe every artist deserves much more than a simple article: they deserve a space where their voice, journey, and vision can be heard with precision. In this exchange, Laure Mi Hyun Croset generously shares her connection to Korea, her literary evolution, her favorite themes, and the ambitious projects that will mark the coming years of her career.
Laure Mi Hyun Croset. Photo credit: © Laure Mi Hyun Croset.
1. You were born in Seoul and grew up in Switzerland. How has this journey between two cultures shaped your worldview and your literary sensibility?
Laure Mi Hyun Croset: “I think my adoption has been fundamental regarding both my worldview and my literary path. Abandonment created a neurosis that served as an excellent artistic engine, and the fact that I look different from my fellow citizens drew me very early to outcasts, marginals, and other misfits. It is also an immense richness to develop knowledge of these two very different cultures.”
2. What connection do you maintain with Korea today, and how does this cultural dimension reflect in your work?
Laure Mi Hyun Croset: “My connection with Korea has transformed over 30 years, from the first time I traveled there until now, somewhat in rhythm with the country's own changes. Writing Made in Korea, a novel about a diabetic adoptee returning to his origins, fact-checking to write it, promoting it in Korea, and then promoting its Korean translation have all helped change my relationship with this country. In short, my status as a tourist or adoptee evolved into that of an invited writer. For four years, I have often been invited to speak in Europe at festivals or programs about Korea. I have thus continued to study the culture of this country. These researches pull me out of a purely Western vision of the world and inevitably influence my way of writing. Moreover, in Korea, literature is highly appreciated and writers are truly respected. This represents a great source of encouragement.”
3. Your writing is often described as sensitive and luminous. How would you define your literary voice?
Laure Mi Hyun Croset: “I think Made in Korea is softer than my other works. While I generally try to make my readers feel empathy for people very far from them, I also try to shake them up through quite biting irony. I think fierce would suit better to define my work, or at least ironic, but each of my books is very different from the others. Each text questions a specific aspect of human existence and also the way to approach that subject. Without that, I would get bored.”
4. What themes naturally return in your work, like guiding threads accompanying your path as an author?
Laure Mi Hyun Croset: “I am fascinated by individual journeys, both by tipping points and by our daily cowardices. I try to send people back to their responsibilities, starting with those towards themselves. My texts are also all about the perception, erroneous or not, that characters have of other characters, but they also play with that of the reader.”
5. Is there a founding moment or experience that awakened your desire to write?
Laure Mi Hyun Croset: “Yes, at a certain point, I grew tired of being artists' muse. I wanted to become a creator in my turn, but this desire took time to materialize. More globally, it is the reader in me who wanted to enter the laboratory of writing.”
6. Could you describe your way of writing? Do you work in a structured way or rather intuitively?
Laure Mi Hyun Croset: “Both. First, I explore and follow what we can call inspiration. Like a little mustang, I let my imagination gallop. Then, I structure and proofread my production with fastidiousness, sometimes for several years. It is form that fascinates me. The subject is only a pretext to test a device and a voice. I am clearly more a stylist than a storyteller. Language is therefore essential for me, and irony characterizes most of my narratives.”
7. In your opinion, what role can literature still play today, in a world in constant acceleration?
Laure Mi Hyun Croset: “The answer is in this fundamental question. Literature allows, rather than reacting instantly, to slow down, to take time for reflection, both on the part of the writer and the reader. It is an art that requires patience and attention. It incites taking a step back. It is essential to escape the noise of the world and it is also a fabulous space to test hypotheses. If, like essays, literature allows asking questions, it above all offers free paths, very far from any dogmatism.”
8. Are you currently working on a new book or a project that you would agree to present briefly?
Laure Mi Hyun Croset: “I am preparing the promotion for translations of some of my works into Italian and Albanian. Several collective collections will also be published, but my most impressive project is that I am starting training as a screenwriter and director, and I will shoot my first film by the summer of 2027!”