All the British Council Interviews with Korean authors at the London Book Fair.

London Book Fair 2014 logoThe Language Translation Institute of Korea and The British Council in Seoul did a brilliant job of selecting authors for the 2014 London Book Fair (at which Korea was the market focus). The British Council used this opportunity to interview all of the authors, and while these interviews may be found individually through their “news” feed, I don’t think they have all been gathered together in one place until this post.

So here, links to, and the topics of, the interviews of the 10 authors who represented Korea in London, complete with links to Amazon to their books I recommend. (UPDATE: Link rot has cost us all these links)

• Q&A with Yi Mun-yol (Our Twisted Hero, Pilon’s Pig, The Poet) – On living and writing internationally, the importance of redrafting, and a writer’s social responsibilities…

• Q&A with Kim Insuk  (The Long Road, Stab) – On living and writing internationally, the importance of redrafting, and a writer’s social responsibilities.

• Q&A with Yoon Tae-ho – On Webtoons, writing interesting characters, and responding to reality…

• Q&A with Hwang Sun-mi (The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly) – On encountering novels, the influence of Beatrix Potter, and chancing upon stories in everyday life

• Q&A with Kim Young-ha  (Photo Shop Murder, I Have the Right to Destroy Myself, Your Republic is Calling You) – On crime fiction, Kafka and competing for a reader’s time and attention…

• Q&A with Hwang Sok-yong (The Guest, The Old Garden) –  On experience, imagination and living with history..

• Q&A with Han Kang  (Convalescence) – Questions, not answers: metamorphosis, uncertainty, and change as the measure of life.

• Q&A with Lee Seung– Enthusiasm, despair, and stories that exceed the limit of space and time…

• Q&A with Kim Hyesoon  (All the Garbage of the World, Unite!, Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream) – On writing and gender identity, literature as a window on the world, and poetry as a political response…

• Q&A With Kyung-sook Shin  (The Place Where the Harmonium Was, Please Look After Mom, I’ll Be There) –  on writing to restore peace, the digital world, and winning the Man Asian Literary Prize…