Really good news, as it may open the door for other prizes to think about Korean translations as prizeworthy.

KTLIT has talked about the failure of Korean lit to get into these contests here, here, and here. But the epic commercial success of Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mom was apparently too massive to ignore.

Awesome!

Here is the entire long list:

2011 Longlist

JAMIL AHMAD (Pakistan) – The Wandering Falcon

TAHMIMA ANAM (Bangladesh) – The Good Muslim

JAHNAVI BARUA (India) – Rebirth

RAHUL BHATTACHARYA (India) – The Sly Company of People Who Care

MAHMOUD DOWLATABADI (Iran) – The Colonel

AMITAV GHOSH (India) – River of Smoke

HARUKI MURAKAMI (Japan) – 1Q84

ANURADHA ROY (India) – The Folded Earth

KYUNG-SOOK SHIN (South Korea) – Please Look After Mom

TARUN J TEJPAL (India) – The Valley of Masks

YAN LIANKE (China) – Dream of Ding Village

BANANA YOSHIMOTO (Japan) – The Lake

LOL.. gotta love the name “Banan Yoshimoto!”