I am so happy to share the news (now on the blog) that Sharon Choe‘s debut, The Queen of the Spirit Woods, will be on shelves in Fall 2026!

Kristie Choi at Atheneum has acquired The Queen of the Spirit Woods and a sequel, a YA debut by Sharon Choe, pitched as The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea meets The Cruel Prince. In this epic YA romantic fantasy inspired by Korean history, a girl who has faked her way into becoming a royal kitchen maid is embroiled in palace intrigue and forbidden love after stumbling into the mysterious Spirit Woods and unwittingly becoming a vessel for 10,000 nature spirits. Publication is set for fall 2026; Laura Crockett at Triada US handled the deal for world rights.

Sharon is one of those authors whose writing I will follow to the ends of the earth. Poetic, lush, brutally beautiful. She is a woman of many talents, with impressive time management skills. We connected while she was working on her PhD, and now she’s in her postdoc era making waves in her field! We’ve had a project on submission, we’ve revised and resubmitted, we’ve worked on other projects that have now been pulled apart and married with others––she’s so prolific. It just became a matter of finding the right project to launch her into the stratosphere, for others to see what I see in her too.

Kristie approached me, mentioning that she’d heard through the grapevine of Sharon’s particular brand of prose and style. When the two connected, it was only right that what would come from this conversation became a fantasy duology, the first of which is The Queen of the Spirit Woods. Blending Korean history and folklore with Sharon’s depth of character and gorgeous voice, this is bound to be a success. I can’t wait for you to read it––and to finally get a taste of Sharon’s greatness!

Congratulations, Sharon! You’re going to be a published author!