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Category Archives: General book news

Korea Yearbook 2009 Call for Papers

29-Sep-08

Korea Yearbook 2009 Call for Papers

The editors of the Korea Yearbook – Politics, Economy, Society, published since 2007 by Brill (Leiden and Boston), are now calling for papers for the 2009 edition of the yearbook. The Korea Yearbook consists, on the one hand, of four concise overviews of domestic and external affairs of the two Koreas and, on the other hand, of on average eight in-depth studies of contemporary political, economic and social affairs in both North and South Korea. We are now calling for proposals for papers for the latter, refereed part of the yearbook. The editors are particularly interested in papers dealing with North Korea and inter-Korean affairs and papers analysing Korean affairs from a comparative perspective. Papers on other topics falling within ...
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Korean bookshop in New Malden

16-Aug-08

Korean bookshop in New Malden

Thanks to David Gomez for writing in with an answer to a question which lots of people have asked: where to buy Korean books in London. Not books about Korea, not books about how to learn Korean, but books written in Korean. My standard answer is that I haven’t the foggiest idea, but that if you’re lucky you can get a children’s book or two in Grant & Cutler. Undaunted, David did his own research, and discovered Book Village (책 마을) at 115B Burlington Road, New Malden, KT3 4LR, tel 0208 336 5916 [Map]. It’s right above a food store. It’s a snug little room, lined with more books than you can possibly imagine, with a couple of sofas. Kim Hye Sun (below) ...
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Meet Mister Kim. Now.

22-Jul-08

Meet Mister Kim. Now.

It's the publishing event of 2008. More hotly anticipated than the latest Harry Potter, and certainly more entertaining, Jennifer Barclay's Meeting Mr Kim, or How I went to Korea and learned to love kimchi, is in the shops now, priced at just £7.99. Jen's trip to Korea was actually back in 2000, so this little baby has been a while gestating, but it's been brought bang up to date, as it starts with an account of the 2007 Korean Food Festival in New Malden. Congratulations, Jen. I'm sure we'll find an excuse for a launch party soon. Amazon still says it's going to be published on 4 August, but I picked up my copy at Daunt last night. Links Buy Meeting Mr Kim at ...
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Jennifer Barclay featured on BBC Radio 4

12-Jul-08

Jennifer Barclay featured on BBC Radio 4

LKL contributor Jennifer Barclay (left) was on Sandi Toksvig's Excess Baggage this morning, talking about kimchi, modern Korean history, and living and traveling in Korea. She was joined by Julian Appleby, who has recently returned from a stint of English language teaching there. As ever with these programmes, there was an ulterior motive involved: Jennifer's book, Meeting Mr Kim, or how I went to Korea and learned to love kimchi, has hit the printing presses and will be in the shops in August. Jennifer's pleasantly relaxed style came across well in the interview, though she was unable to persuade Sandi Toksvig to have second helpings of the kimchi she brought into the studio. There will be a book review on this site ...
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Bargains at SOAS publishing workshop

21-Jun-08

Bargains at SOAS publishing workshop

It’s always worth turning up to an event when you know that book publishers are present. Brill, Saffron and Global Oriental were all present at the SOAS Korean publishing workshop on Monday. With Saffron selling their catalogue at half price on the night, and Global Oriental discounting everything to £20 (including the collected BAKS papers, list price £95), there were plenty of bargains to be had, and I managed to cancel a few items off my Amazon wishlist as well as purchase a couple of books I headn’t been tracking. The event was partly to celebrate the launch of the Selected Writings of Han Yongun (above right), which was done in style, with plenteous wine and nibbles plus a traditional dance ...
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Korean Studies Publishing in Europe - SOAS Workshop

12-Jun-08

Korean Studies Publishing in Europe - SOAS Workshop

Please find below the details of a Korean Studies Publishing in Europe Workshop and book launch taking place on Monday 16 June 2008. The event will take place at SOAS in the Khalili Lecture theatre at 1pm. It coincides with the publication of the "Selected Writings of Han Yong-un" by Global Oriental, stalwarts of Korean Studies publishing, a representative of whom will be speaking at the conference. Also represented will be Saffron Books - a niche publisher with a Korean specialism - and Brill, who publish the Korea Yearbook among other things. There's a review of one of Saffron's publications coming very soon on LKL, just as soon as I can check a fact. Click on the below for a full-size version ...
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DPRK propaganda at London’s most famous bookshop

22-Apr-08
To coincide with the launch of David Heather's book on DPRK propaganda art at the end of this month, Foyles is to be decorated with some examples of DPRK posters from David's collection. The book, entitled North Korean Posters, comes from Prestel Publishing, and will be launched at Foyles next week. The posters will be on display from 29 April to 7 May. Foyles is at 113-119 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0EB [Map] The show is also listed in Foyles's events page While on a DPRK theme, here's a video which has been doing the rounds over the past few days. Paul Koontz reports on a 4 day visit to the DPRK last year, including some DPRK propaganda posters and the Mass Games: If it ...
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Leading Korean poet comes to London

19-Apr-08

Leading Korean poet comes to London

Ko Un (고은), one of Korea’s most prominent living poets, will be giving his first ever UK poetry reading at the Korean Cultural Centre, London on Tuesday, 29 April at 7.00-8.30pm. “It is very striking to see the kind of tuning fork [Ko Un] has been, re-inventing himself in every decade through the turns in Korea’s postwar political and social history. In his early work, it’s my impression that he was writing in some version of the received tradition of Korean nature lyric with symbolist overtones, touched by the Korean folk tradition, touched by Son Buddhism, which, compared to the sense of refinement in Zen Buddhist poetry, seems earthy and intellectually tough. …Ko Un is a remarkable poet and one of ...
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New books for the Spring

07-Apr-08
Three recent publications: First, a new book in the Korean Spirit and Culture series, produced by the aptly named Korean Spirit and Culture Promotion Project. This is their fourth, and is the first of two to explore Fifty Wonders of Korea. This volume covers Culture and Art, while the next one will cover Science and Technology. The book is free. You can download a copy of it in pdf form by clicking on the book at www.koreanhero.net. If you want a hard copy, there should be some available at the Cultural Centre on 10 April when the Anglo Korean Society and the KTO hold their evening of Korean Culture. Or you can email mecjackson at gmail dot com. Second, another book from Keith ...
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Where to buy books about Korea in Manhattan

07-Feb-08

Where to buy books about Korea in Manhattan

In my expensive quest for more acquisitions for my collection of Korea-related books I am always on the look-out for stores with decent stock. I have in the past been constantly disappointed by the bookshops in Manhattan. The main Korean bookshop in 32nd Street, Koryo Books, caters to Korean speakers rather than English speakers. The collection of books in English there has shrunk still further since I last visited and to be honest is not really worth a visit any more unless you are interested in books to help you to read Korean. As an aside, I spotted an interestingly specific English language manual for native Korean speakers, providing evidence of a favoured occupation among the community: The book contained Korean and ...
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Books to look forward to in 2008

16-Jan-08
Here's some of the books I'll be looking out for in 2008. First, Mark James Russell's Pop Goes Korea From kim chee to kim chic! South Korea came from nowhere in the 1990s to become one of the biggest producers of pop content (movies, music, comic books, TV dramas, online gaming) in Asia-and the West. Why? Who's behind it? Mark James Russell tells an exciting tale of rapid growth and wild success marked by an uncanny knack for moving just one step ahead of changing technologies (such as music downloads and Internet comics) that have created new consumer markets around the world. Among the media pioneers profiled in this book is film director Kang Je-gyu, maker of Korea's first blockbuster film Shiri; ...
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The Korea Yearbook

06-Dec-07
First, to note the publication of the 2007 Year Book, and to draw your attention to the call for papers for the 2008 Year Book. Articles in the 2007 yearbook deal with online grassroots journalism and participatory democracy, the Lone Star scandal, changing perceptions of inward direct investment, the impact of China's economic ascendance, modern cityscape and mass housing production, new ancestral shrines, and the political economy of patriotism. Additional articles highlight lessons of negotiations with North Korea, the plight of North Koreans in China, and Korea-China border issues. The yearbook is essential reading for anyone interested in modern Korea. Korea Yearbook, Volume 1 (2007) Edited by Rüdiger Frank, James E. Hoare, Patrick Köllner and Susan Pares Table of contents Preface (Patrick Köllner) Chronology 2006 ...
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Che in Verse launched

16-Oct-07
(Che in Verse, eds Gavin O'Toole & Georgina Jimenez, Aflame Books, 2007) Loyal readers who have followed this site from its early months may recall a question posed by a visitor about a year ago. Gavin O'Toole was working on assembling a compilation of poems from around the world about the great revolutionary Che Guevara. He'd heard that there was a couple of poems about him by Korean poets, and he needed to track them down in translation. After some help from LKL readers we confirmed Ko Un and Min Yeong as the prime candidates for inclusion, but the problem was -- the poems were only available in Korean. One quick email from LKL to Brother Anthony of Taizé via the Korean ...
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Upcoming books on Korean film

16-Aug-07
Just as the Korean film scene seems to be losing some of its buzz, books about it are coming thick and fast. 2004 saw the Wallflower Press book (though it seems only last year that it came out); 2005 saw the Julian Stringer / Shin Chi-yun book; and last year came the book on Kim Ki Duk. Meanwhile, there's the stream of books on individual directors issuing forth from Seoul Selection. Later on this year we'll see a new one: the rather unimaginitively titled Seoul Searching, from the State University of New York press. From the publisher's website: Seoul Searching is a collection of fourteen provocative essays about contemporary South Korean cinema, the most productive and dynamic cinema in Asia. Examining the ...
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The Korean peasants’ revolt

03-Aug-07
Anyone who has read Yi Mun-yol's popular book The Poet may be interested in a new book which sets out the historical background. In Yi's fictional biography, the poet Kim Sakkat is ostracised from society, condemned to life as a vagabond, because of his grandfather's actions during the peasants' revolt in Northest Korea in 1812. From the publisher's website: Marginality and Subversion in Korea by Sun Joo Kim In the history of Korea, the nineteenth century is often considered an age of popular rebellions. Scholarly approaches have typically pointed to these rebellions as evidence of the progressive direction of the period, often using the theory of class struggle as an analytical framework. In Marginality and Subversion in Korea, Sun Joo Kim argues that ...
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Biographical details for Min Yeong?

04-Apr-07
Regular readers will recall the interesting project that Gavin O'Toole is engaged in: a collection of poems from around the world on the subject of Che Guevara. With the help of Brother Anthony, Gavin got hold of the translations of two Korean poems, one by Ko Un and the other by Min Yeong. As the project is now nearing completion, Gavin is looking to provide short biographical details for each of the poets in the book, and is having difficulty sourcing anything in English about Min Yeong. Can anyone provide such details? Links: Brother Anthony's site Translations of Ko Un and Min Yeong poems on Che Guevara Related posts:Che in Verse launched (Che in Verse, eds Gavin O’Toole & Georgina Jimenez, Aflame...Che Guevara in Korean poetry ...
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New and upcoming books

05-Mar-07
Tom Coyner and Jang Song-hyon have just brought out Mastering Business in Korea - A Practical Guide. The ad in Seoul Magazine reads as follows: In an engaging and easy-to-read format, two experienced business consultants explain the ins and outs of contemporary Korean business culture, etiquette, work rules, and marketing to the Korean consumer. Pick up a copy today, and gain pivotal insight into an environment that is traditional yet uncompromisingly modern, challenging yet surprisingly rewarding for the determined business professional. On the basis of zero experience, I suspect the words "challenging" and "determined" are well-chosen. Take the publisher's guff with a pinch of salt, but Coyner always provides engaging comments in his daily news service, and has run a series of ...
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Final ARCO programme details

14-Feb-07
Here are the final details for everything that's going on in Madrid this month. Korean events at ARCO Korean galleries at ARCO Complete ARCO social programme, including non-Korean stuff, but this is a day-by-day calendar, giving useful data such as timings of all the Korean films. Note that poet Ko Un will be making an appearance on Friday 16th. I'm now unable to go to Madrid, so if any of you out there who are going feel like writing anything for this site, feel free. Related posts:Dano Festival 2008: final programme details Here’s the final schedule for the Dano Festival in Trafalgar...London Korean Film Festival 2007 programme details Here’s the running order. Some commentary to follow tomorrow. Breath...Korean short films in Futureshorts February programme Futureshorts’ ...
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Monster Madrid K-fest in February!!!

09-Jan-07
Just received from the organisers of ARCO 2007 in Madrid. Film, music, dance, literature and of course contemporary art. To call it a feast undersells it. And that's not all: this is just the stuff they know about already. There's some other stuff they haven't finalised. I haven't taken all this in yet, but I thought I'd post it straight away to make sure you got your tickets sorted out. Time to escape to Spain, everyone. Or ask them to ship everything to London once they've finished with it. I'll let you know when I hear more, and if anything more coherent strikes me once I've had a proper chance to read the information below. I've also got a list of the ...
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The London Korean Links Awards 2006

31-Dec-06

The London Korean Links Awards 2006

In the year-end spirit of reviewing the highlights and lowlights of 2006, here are the winners of the first LKL Awards - a personal and unscientific selection. The awards are in the following categories: Man of the Year Woman of the Year Best cultural promotion: Briton in Korea Best cultural promotion: Korean in Britain Best cultural promotion: Non-Korean in Britain Best photo Best album Best book Best film London event of the year Headline of the year and some miscellaneous awards... Man of the Year I don't think there's any competition. Rain, Rain, Rain. Time's most influential entertainer, Seoul's tourism goodwill ambassador, a starring role in Park Chan-wook's latest film, a sell-out concert in New York, a Christmas eve gig in Las Vegas, a good selling album (below). What have I missed? He hasn't ...
Also filed in 2006 year-end posts, Bong Joon-ho, Business, Celebs, Humming Urban Stereo, Music: K-pop, Performance arts, Pictures, Rain, Samsung, Sport | Tagged , | Comments (6) »

Seoul Magazine’s book of the month

12-Dec-06
One of the features of the British book market is the grassroots book club movement: suburban housewives gather to discuss the latest novels over a coffee; there are even workplace book clubs (the UK's Financial Services Authority has one). The popularity of this movement has now been hijacked by the popular daytime TV double-act Richard and Judy, whose book club can propel an author to the top of the best sellers list. Less likely to make a millionaire of an author, but still very worthwhile, is Seoul magazine's "book of the month" series. For people who don't know where to start with Korean literature (making no comparisons with the Richard and Judy audience) it's a great way to find out about ...
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Books on Korean Heroes

09-Dec-06
Probably a fairly straightforward question from a visitor in the US: I have children born in U.S. For education purposes, I am trying to find good (series of) books written in English for Korean Heroes in old history. Could someone refer me to website links? Thanks. My immediate thought is to recommend the series recently started by the Diamond Sutra Recitation Group. Their book on Admiral Yi fits the bill admirably, and I recently dipped in to their book on King Sejong which is also along the same lines. Are there any other recommendations? Related posts:Korean books in London We were unable to give a decent answer to the...ULKS Korean night As I wandered unchecked into the Conway Hall last night...Korean books at ...
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Che Guevara in Korean poetry (part 2)

03-Dec-06
Thanks to daeguowl for researching this interesting question, and for coming up with some additional poems to consider. And a special thanks to Brother Anthony of Taize for giving of his time, and providing translations for the two key poems which our visitor was interested in. Here they are: Memoirs by Ko Un Translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé and Lee Sang-Wha I was twenty. For no reason I wearily loathed the apricot-flowered spring days. I was starving. I wanted to fall Clang! on the bitterly cold snowfields of Irkutzk in Siberia -- forty below. I wanted to fall, shot, killed like a young Decembrist. An obtuse age, all I hoped was a breathless Sturm und Drang. I felt as if a wizard's hand had been cut off with a straw-cutter. When a hoe was thrust ...
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North Korean animation

09-Oct-06
Radio 4's weekly travel programme, Excess Baggage, had a slot on North Korea on Saturday morning (7 Oct). It was an interview with Guy Delisle, a French animator. Here's the blurb on the programme from the BBC website North Korea is one of the most secretive countries in the world, with few visitors, especially westerners. It is however in desperate need of foreign investment and in recent years has opened its doors to some 'labour intensive' work from Europe. The field of animation where thousands of individual frames need to be drawn has benefited from it. Guy Delisle, a French animator, travelled to the capital Pyongyang to supervise the drawing of cartoons and talks about his experiences in ...
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More bookshops in central London

10-Sep-06

More bookshops in central London

While in the centre of town for the session on Mingei at the British Museum yesterday I thought I'd check out some bookshops. It turned out to be an expensive trip. Firstly, Arthur Probsthain. A lovely pokey little bookshop for Oriental and African books just opposite the British Museum (41 Great Russell Street WC1B 3PE). It does both new and second hand books. It probably had 30 inches of shelf space devoted to Korea, of which about two thirds was academic - the sort of stock they have at the SOAS bookshop - and a third of which was second-hand. I picked up some folk tales translated by Zong In-sob, some short stories translated by Agnita Tennant, and some poems by ...
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