Seoul Book Fair

In an article titled subheaded, “Giant book event to feature exhibitions, seminars and meetings with authors” the Herald talks about next week’s book fair.

The 17th Seoul International Book Fair, one of the biggest book events in Korea, opens June 15 at COEX in southern Seoul with a total of 572 publishers from 23 countries participating.

I was there the last two years and though the recession clearly took a chunk out of the thrill, it was worth going to. This year looks a little more busy according to the schedule online (NOTE – much of the schedule is not translated on the English page, but checking out the Korean pages shows that Friday and Saturday (click for schedule) will be chock-full of interesting authors – Eun Hee-kyung, Kim In-sook, Kim Jin-myung, Jo Kyung-ran, Kim Ae-ran, and Jeong Yoo-jeong.)

There is one really interesting seminar:

“Digital Publishing: Updates and Insights,” international experts from leading foreign publishing houses will speak about the current trend in e-books and digital publishing. The invited figures include Leslie Hulse, Vice President of Digital Business Development at HarperCollins Publishers in U.S., and Ronald Schild, CEO of MBV, a book marketing service company based in Germany.

But the website reveals that it is gonna cost you 60,000 won to go!

Finally, the article reveals something I missed on the Korean site:

Another seminar will discuss Korean authors Shin Kyung-sook and Kim Young-ha, whose English-translated books have been gaining popularity in North America.

Which I’ll want to try to check out.

Some events will be simultaneously translated, but it appears that most will not.

Anyone else going?