Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Most famous for her experimental memoir/novel, Dictee, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha is a Korean American writer, filmmaker and performance artist. She was born in Pusan, Korea, during the Korean War, but relocated with her parents to San Francisco, California. The interdisciplinary nature of Dictee, which combines narrative, poetry, movie stills, family photos and an array of other genres and forms, and written in various languages, reflects her own varied education. She attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned both an M.F.A. and M.A. (in Comparative Literature). She later relocated to Paris, France, where she studied film and brushed elbows with a number of well-known French filmmakers. Her life was cut tragically short when, in 1982, just a few days after the publication of Dictee, she was raped and murdered by a stranger in New York City. Dictee received little critical attention until the 1990s, when it was republished by the Third World Press, but it is now regarded as a classic work of autobiography and a powerful commentary upon American hybridity.