KTLIT at the 10th Annual Korea Literature Translation (and New Translator) Awards

Winners!

KTLIT was lucky enough to be invited to the 10th Annual Korea Literature Translation Awards, which took place on June 30th at the Seoul Press Center. The event began with a series of speeches, including one from KLTI President Kim Joo-Youn . Then it was on to awarding deserving translations and an excellent buffet.^^

The Korea Literature Translation Institute selects exceptional translations Korean literature every two years for the award, with prize money of up to 20,000 dollars. Translations were screened by such standards as level of completion, readability, and the translators’ understanding of the original Korean literature.

Hwang Sok-young’s Sim Cheong, was translated into French by Professor Choi Mi-kyung of the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation at Ewha Women’s University and translator Jean-Noel Juttet, won the tenth Korean Literature Translation Award. Published in 2010 by the French publisher Éditions Zulma, Sim Cheong was selected as the best book to bring on a vacation by the French newspaper “Le Monde.”

President Kim Joo-Youn awards 최미경 and Jean Noel Juttet

Prizes were also given for a German translation of Kim Young-ha’s Black Flower (Schwarze Blume) by Yang Han-ju and Heiner Feldhoff and A Moment’s Grace, translated into English by John Holstein and published by the Cornell University Press.

Kim Young-ha’s Black Flower has been translated into English by Charles La Shure and will be published next year. Black Flower tells of Korean immigrants in Mexico at the time of the Mexican Revolution and the Japanese annexation of Korea.

A Moment’s Grace includes short stories depicting Korea’s modernization, from the end of Japanese colonialism in 1945 to the Seoul Olympics in 1988. The stories are presented from the point of view of people ‘on the ground,’ and a separate background chapter explains the history and culture surrounding the stories.

The winners in the Korea Literature Translation Awards were:

French: 최미경 and Jean Noel Juttet for Hwang Sok-young’s Sim Cheong
German: 양한주 and Heiner Feldhoff for Kim Young-ha’s Black Flower
English: John Holstein for A Moment’s Grace

Evaluators included:

English: 최영 (Ewha University) and Anthony Adler (Yonsei University)
French: 김희영 (HUFS)  Héléne Lebrun (하비에르 International School)
German: 최윤영 (Seoul University) Hans-Alexander Kneider (HUFS)
Spanish: 송상기 (Koryo University) Andrés Felipe Solano (문화동반자 초청작가)
Chinese: 박재우 (HUFS) Wang Zheng (문학펑
Japanese: 최재철 (HUFS) Iwamoto Nobuto (슈에이사 번역출판부 편집장)
Russian: 김현택 ( HUFS) Alexey Dremov (HUFS)

Finally, the winners of the 10th Korean Literature Translation Contest for New Translators were:

English: Jane Kim for “Into the Morning” and 지예구 for “The Morning Door”
French: 이아람 for “La port d’un matine”
German: Maike Siehl for “Tur des Morgens”
Spanish: Parodi Sebastian for “La Puerta de la Manana”
Russian: Pak Kamilla Moran for a title that can’t be typed on my keyboard.^^
Chinese: Wang Yanli for another title that can’t be typed on my keyboard.^^
Japanese: Furukawa Ayako for another title that can’t be typed on my keyboard.^^

A grand time was had by all, particularly the winners.