An article about Park Wan-seo (again, romanizations vary) on the 40th anniversary of her debut as an author and the publication of a book of essays she has writen over the last 4 years:

The book is divided into three parts _ “Underline of My Life,” “Paths of Books” and “For Yearnings.” In particular, she writes tributes to the deceased such as Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-whan, author Park Kyung-ni and painter Park Soo-geun.

There are few quotes – she talks about how the war was formative in her writing and about her personal history. Most suprising, she apparently takes a swing at Korean leftists, accusing them of “coward pacifism” with respect to the sinking of the Cheonan. This is a relatively brave move in a culture which less than 1o years ago had demonstrations and book-burnings in front of the house of Yi Mun-yuol because of his rightist views.

Park should be in the twilight of her career (she was born in 1931), but instead she is a vibrant voice in the Korean literati.