Yoojin Grace Wuertz (born 1980) is an American novelist who was reviewed for her 2017 book ''Everything Belongs To Us''.
Born in
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
, Wuertz moved to the United States with her family at the age of six and was raised in the
North Jersey
North Jersey comprises the northern portions of the U.S. state of New Jersey between the upper Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. The designation of northern New Jersey with a distinct toponym is a colloquial one rather than an administrativ ...
communities of
Paramus
Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...
and Ridgefield Park. Wuertz earned a bachelor's degree in English from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
and earned a master's degree in fiction writing from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
.Bio & Links Yoojin Grace Wuertz. Accessed June 5, 2017. "Yoojin Grace Wuertz was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to the United States at age six. She holds a BA in English from Yale University and an MFA in fiction from New York University." Originally planning to pursue a career as an academic, she left a Ph.D. program at
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
and decided to devote her time to writing.
Wuertz has been a resident of
The Record (Bergen County)
''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and P ...
'', April 4, 2017. Accessed June 5, 2017. "Like most teenagers, Yoojin Grace Wuertz was sometimes at odds with her parents, who had moved their family from South Korea to Bergen County when she was 6.... Wuertz, who lives in Oradell after growing up in Paramus and Ridgefield Park, released ''Everything Belongs to Us'' in February."