Earlier this summer, I received a delightful newsletter in my inbox authored by someone I had been wanting to read more from—Chris Kuo. He led the recently launched Inkwell Espresso newsletter, a part of Christianity Today’s Inkwell publication, with a focus on journalistic and artistic conversations. His work has been published at The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Tampa Bay Times among other outlets.
With SOLA Network’s Young Writers Cohort about to launch this fall, I was curious to learn about Chris’s writing journey, how it interacts with his faith, and if he had any practical tips for our incoming cohort. Though I was familiar with some established voices at this intersection of faith and journalism, it was refreshing and exciting to hear from a member of Gen Z.
In this conversation between Chris and Heidi over Zoom, Chris shared about how his upbringing—being a citizen of one country while living in another—shaped his perspective and journey as a storyteller. He also shares some advice and encouragement for budding writers and those looking to develop their voice. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q&A
Before we dive in, tell us a little bit about yourself and your hobbies!
I graduated from Duke in 2023, and have been working as a journalist for a couple of years now. But before that, I spent a lot of my time growing up in China. So that’s something pretty important to my story, living overseas there for 17 years of my life.
Recently, I got my Master’s Degree from the University of Limerick in Ireland and was part of a program called the George Mitchell Scholarship. I’ve spent time traveling abroad in Europe for the past year, which was lovely in terms of hobbies. As a writer, I really like to read. I also enjoy the outdoors, hiking, rock climbing, and then also watching sports like tennis. I’ve been following the US Open recently.
Becoming a journalist has a much less defined pathway as, say, becoming a lawyer, doctor, or a software engineer. How did you develop an interest in writing and story-telling, and eventually get into journalism?
Growing up, it wasn’t clear to me that I wanted to become a journalist. I didn’t idolize people who worked in news or anything like that. However it was very evident that I loved reading and writing in multiple different capacities—academic writing, but also creative nonfiction writing and so forth. I read voraciously, and I think that really shaped who I am today in terms of my interest as a writer.
Then during the summer after my junior year of high school, I participated in a program at Harvard’s summer extension school. I took two classes, both of them related to journalism. One was called “Basic Journalism” focused on learning the very elemental aspects of the industry, how to write a news story, the inverted pyramid, very basic things. But I took this other class as well that was more of an advanced journalism seminar called “The Art of Feature Writing.” And that class, I think, was one of the things that really helped to set me on the path that I am on today. It helped me realize that journalism could be much more than just writing a basic news story with the who, what, when, where, and why.
When I started doing feature writing, I would explore Cambridge and Boston and meander throughout the city. In doing so, I came across interesting stories that I would then write into features. I remember we had this one assignment that was called “invisible”, and our assignment was to profile somebody who we came into contact with regularly, but never interacted with on a personal level.
I profiled a manager at this fast food Indian restaurant in Harvard Square. He had come to the US from India because his daughter had a rare heart disease, and had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in India to be able to get her access to medical care at the Boston Children’s Hospital. My conversation with him ended up being a really fascinating and heart wrenching story that I discovered by accident.
That experience instilled in me this lesson that there are stories lurking in everyday life all around us, and more importantly, that people have depth to them that is waiting to be discovered. And I think one of the parts of journalism that I do enjoy the most, is the opportunity to explore those stories and depths.
I took more journalism classes at Duke, one of which was a profile writing class. We read stories from every magazine you could think of—mostly these paradigmatic classic examples of “New Journalism,” which is kind of like creative nonfiction, blending the techniques of fiction and creative storytelling with real life facts. So I really fell in love with that again. I decided I would try to do some internships in college, and that’s kind of where it really got serious, where I thought this could actually be a career. One thing led to another, and here I am today.
Was there an article or story that particularly inspired you?
There was a profile about Mr. Rogers by Tom Junod. It was called “Can You Say Hero” for Esquire in 1998. Tom has this incredible lyrical style of writing, and it expands the horizon of what I think nonfiction can do. A lot of people have this conception of nonfiction as very cut and dry, which is often the case for a lot of nonfiction books and even magazine writing. But then there are these writers who can write about really anything in a way that feels like you’re reading fiction. It’s so cinematic.
I don’t know if you consider yourself “Asian American” given that you grew up for the most part overseas. But however you identify, how does that background influence the approach to your craft, and also interact with your faith?
Regarding my ethnic identity and cultural background in relation to my journalism career… I don’t know if I would identify fully as “Asian American”. There’s a subset of Asian American culture that I feel like I’m not as connected to given my upbringing abroad, and I’m also half Asian. But I certainly have been influenced by elements of my Asian identity. What’s influenced me most deeply was my experience trying to navigate this identity and struggling to be understood by different groups of people. I often felt like I was at an intersection where I didn’t feel fully at home, either in my passport country (the US) because I had spent so much time overseas, or in China because English was my first language and I never really felt fully integrated into Chinese society.
Sometimes when I would come back to the US, it was difficult to translate my life abroad into terms that people back here could understand. When people would ask, “Where are you from?” and I responded with “China,” that would be a conversation-ender. We would just move on to more surface level things, because if you have never been exposed to that region in the world, it’s hard to know what to even ask about as a follow-up.
So I think in some ways, that fueled my desire to be somebody who actively listens and asks questions about other people’s stories because I know what it feels like to be on the other side. That isn’t the only impetus for my journalism career, but it’s one strand in this thread and tapestry that’s being formed. I’ve tried to model a posture of listening and being someone who asks that extra question of going deeper into somebody’s story when they are willing to share.
And then regarding faith, I enjoy reporting on issues of faith and religion in America. I think there’s a really fascinating moment right now in church history, in the US, where there’s a lot of evolution in terms of the Evangelical church trying to navigate its identity in the current era. Reporting for Christianity Today has been a really interesting exercise in trying to just understand what Christianity is like in America.
I also feel this strong impulse and calling to try to use whatever opportunities and gifts I’ve been given and leverage them in the service of people who maybe don’t have as much, or people who are experiencing injustice. This very much aligns with something a lot of professional journalists point to as the mission of journalism: “to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”. The impulse behind this phrase is that we want to hold people in power accountable, and also want to uplift those who don’t have a voice.
At the same time, I think that mission goes hand in hand with journalism also being deeply independent. I am a firm believer in bringing my whole self to my job, but also following the facts wherever they lead, recognizing that they can sometimes lead to an uncomfortable place. Maybe it’s a place that is deeply critical of the church, or a place where you know that might not even align with my values as a Christian. So I think there’s an element in journalism where you have to be willing to be not necessarily a neutral third party, but somebody who’s willing to follow the truth and present the truth to the public. Because I think if you lose that independence of the journalist, you ultimately lose everything about what journalism stands for.
You’ve recently graduated from college, and yet have many pieces published on major sites. How did you develop your voice and confidence, and what has helped along the way?
Thankfully, I had the support of a loving family, and also people at my university faculty who were incredible mentors. I could list so many different people who shaped me to be the writer I am today. I got a lot of reps by writing for a few student newspapers in college, The Duke Chronicle and 9th Street Journal.
I think student journalism is great because it gives you more room to fail. You’re not on a large platform yet, but at the same time, it’s actual journalism that you can use when applying for jobs. So there are real stakes to it, but the stakes are still lower than a mainstream publication.That’s where you can learn what it means when you get a correction, and how to process feedback when you make an error in your writing.
I was also the enterprise editor on the student paper which meant that I oversaw the long form of features, investigations, and so forth. This gave me a lot of editing experience, which was also immensely helpful for my writing. The combination of both writing and doing it in a way in a setting that’s lower stakes can be really helpful to get practice and build your voice.
What’s one thing you struggle with as a writer, and how would you encourage someone struggling with the same thing?
I struggle with perfectionism. When I read great writing, I think these pieces are emblematic of what I want to produce and they become my standard. But then when I write, it’s so much worse. Sometimes I have to remind myself that all writing is messy at the beginning. Much of writing is actually about the refinement of that first draft. I’ve adopted a mindset that when I start writing my first draft, I’m okay with it being as terrible as it needs to be. I put aside this part of my brain that wants to tinker with every single sentence and make it perfect.
And it’s hard to fight the impulse to be a perfectionist, especially when you’re writing for a professional newspaper where your writing is going to be published. There can be a lot of pressure to make it really good. But it can be freeing to write the first draft in a way that’s not perfectionistic, and then refine from there.
Okay last question, what advice do you have for budding writers who are not sure how to develop their voice? Start a substack? Read a lot? Write a lot? Specific websites to browse?
I think the important thing is finding what you love and analyzing why you love it. For me, I identified types of magazine stories that I really liked, and that is a model for some of the writing that I try to do.
If you can find really good writing that you admire, and then dissect and break down the reasons why you like it, you can gain skills along the way. For example, why does this introduction or lead work on me the way that it does? What about this sentence structure do I really enjoy? How can I emulate that in my own writing?
After that, you’ll have to write a lot. This is true for a lot of creative professions, but the iterative process is so valuable. You have to be willing to make mistakes and fail a lot before you actually do the really, really amazing thing that you’re trying to do. And I think that’s true whether you’re painting or writing poetry or even taking photos—you learn by doing.
Substack can be useful for doing that in terms of being a publishing platform, or you could just write on a personal blog. You could also try to write as a freelancer for various publications. Getting as many reps in as you can will help you improve. But even more important than writing is reading. At least for me, that’s been what’s most helpful.
Chris’s Recommendations For Further Reading
Writing at the Intersection of Faith and Journalism
- Esau McCauley
- Tish Harrison Warren
- Elizabeth Bruenig
- Ross Douthat
- David French
- Christianity Today
- Inkwell Stories
Creative Non-Fiction & Memoir
- Tom Junod, Can You Say Hero
- Patrick Radden Keefe, Say Nothing
- David Grann, The Wager
- Hua Tsu, Stay True
Header Photo Credit: Jenna Day