UPDATE: Any fans of Kim can feel free to chime in in the comments section ;-). Expatriates in Korea sometimes joke about an occasional Korean tendency to claim the origination of everything great took place in Korea (Christmas Trees and Jesus, for example), but over at the Huffington Post John R. Eperjesi, an Assistant professor…
A couple more things found on the web that don’t merit a full post, but deserve being noted. First, an excellent interview with Yi Mun-yol, possibly Korea’s greatest translated man of fiction (partly because he’s had a relatively large number of works translated, partly because he’s just that good^^). The interview is part of a…
2011 was an active year in Korean literature. • First, as the year began, Korea lost one of its great authors, and one well represented in translation, Park Wan-so. An international literary treasure as well a national one, Park’s literary career spanned thirty years, and she wrote more than 20 novels and 100 short stories,…
This is another way (other than that link you see on the right: Where to Start in Korean Modern Fiction) to gain a quick understanding of Korean Modern Literature. That way is to collect the books in the excellent LTI Korea / Jimoondang collaborative series The Portable Library of Korean Fiction. These books are now,…
First up was a press-conference during which about 8 of us talked about our impressions of the changes in the state of Korean literature in translation. We had folks from Poland, France, Spain, Germany, Canada, and the US (me!). The press seemed interested, but my poor Korean no doubt made me slightly less quotable. The…
I first noticed this news in an email update from Kokkiri at the excellent Subject Object Verb. Yi Mun-yol has had his story An Anonymous Island published in the New Yorker, which is certainly good news. Unfortunately, it is a subscription/pay by the story deal, so you’ll have to pay to read the thing. This…
Here is an interesting video podcast from Arirang called Globalization of Korean Literature (with a script). The authors it focuses on are Shin Kyoung-Sook and Han Gang. Gang says: “Literature is an art through language… and language by nature seeks communication. As an author, it is such a pleasure that my literary works are read…
While down on Jeju-do hiking the massively awesome Olle Trail, we ended up in Jeju-si for a couple of days and after some Korean sleuthing by the awesome “Translator” we were face to face with the Jeju Literature House (and, apparently, cafe). Here are the excellent instructions as the Translator gave them: The address of…
From the Chosun Ilbo (and having nothing to do with English translations): Three literary works by Korean authors have made this year’s “Best List” published by Germany’s Society for the Promotion of African, Asian and Latin American Literature. The works include poet Ko Un’s “Flowers of a Moment,” author Yi Mun-yol’s “The Poet,” and Jo…
It is the 39th anniversary celebration of Kyobo books, and the celebration will include some speeches/presentations by famous authors. The important details are: The bookstore conducted a survey on “Great Authors” from May 4 to 15 by questioning some 20,000 readers. The readers selected the top 10 authors whom they would like to meet. The…