UCSB Reads Author Event
Michelle Zauner Crying in H Mart
Thu, May 7 / 7:30 PM / Campbell Hall
Co-presented with UCSB Library as part of UCSB Reads 2026, with support from the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Michelle Zauner is the acclaimed author of the bestselling Crying in H Mart, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother and forging her own identity. With humor and heart, Zauner describes her adolescence in Oregon, discovering her love of music, and her complex relationship with her mother – from struggling to meet her high expectations to bonding with her over plates of steaming food on trips to Seoul.
Zauner initially achieved fame as the frontwoman for Japanese Breakfast, a Grammy-nominated indie pop band that has toured internationally and appeared on Saturday Night Live. The band has released three studio albums: Psychopomp (2016), Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) and Jubilee (2021). In addition to writing, singing and performing, Zauner has also directed many of Japanese Breakfast’s music videos.
When Zauner was 25, her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Zauner moved home to become her mother’s caretaker, embarking on a journey that would force a reckoning with her identity and eventually a reclamation of the gifts of taste, language and history her mother had given her.
Zauner is currently adapting Crying in H Mart into a feature film through Orion Pictures. When she is not on tour or working on new music in Seoul and Los Angeles, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Japanese Breakfast guitarist Peter Bradley.
Crying in H Mart instantly rocketed to the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained for over a year. It was named one of the year’s best books by The New York Times, Time magazine, NPR, The Washington Post, Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America and more. Former President Barack Obama also included Crying in H Mart among his favorite books of 2021. In 2022, Time magazine named Michelle Zauner one of its 100 Most Influential People. For the occasion, comedian Bowen Yang wrote, “While she intertwines the threads of her art into perfect plaits, she lets us find something in our own lives, a new strand with which to adorn ourselves. It doesn’t get better than that. Everybody wants to love her.”
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UCSB Reads An award-winning program of the UCSB Library, UCSB Reads – now entering its milestone 20th year – brings the campus and Santa Barbara communities together each year by reading a common book that explores compelling issues of our time.
Books are available for purchase in the lobby and a signing follows the event
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