This is now LKL’s fifth annual post that looks at the literature and fiction titles we’re looking forward to over the coming twelve months. Since last year we’ve made things easier for ourselves by investing some time building a book database that aims to catalogue all physical publications of Korean literature in translation, as well […]
Author: Bruce Fulton
Selected publications
- What Is Korean Literature?, Univ of California Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies 2020
Selected translations by Bruce Fulton
- Anthology: The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories ed Bruce Fulton, Penguin 2021
- Kim Soom: One Left, University of Washington Press 2020
- Cheon Un-yeong: The Catcher in the Loft, Codhill Press 2019
- Kim Sagwa: Mina, Two Lines Press 2018
- Chae Man-sik: Sunset: A Ch’ae Manshik Reader, Columbia University Press 2017
- Jo Jung-rae: The Human Jungle, Chin Music Press 2016
- Anthology: The Future of Silence – Fiction by Korean Women ed Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton, Zephyr Press 2016
- Hwang Sun-won: The Moving Fortress, Merwin Asia 2015
- Yi Hyo-seok: Leaves of Grass (Bi-lingual, Vol 103 – Before and After Liberation), Asia Publishers 2015
- Chae Man-sik: Juvesenility (Bi-lingual, Vol 101 – Before and After Liberation), Asia Publishers 2015
- Chu Yo-seop: Mama and the Boarder (Bi-lingual, Vol 99 – Traditional Korea’s Lost Faces), Asia Publishers 2015
- Yi Tae-jun: An Idiot’s Delight (Bi-lingual, Vol 98 – Traditional Korea’s Lost Faces), Asia Publishers 2015
- Ha Ilji: The Republic of Užupis, Dalkey Archive 2014
- Choi In-ho: Another Man’s City, Dalkey Archive 2014
- Lee Hye-kyung: And Then the Festival (Bi-lingual, Vol 54 – Family), Asia Publishers 2014
- Jeong Ji-hyun: In the Trunk (Bi-lingual, Vol 25 – Love and Love Affairs), Asia Publishers 2013
- Jo Jung-rae: How in Heaven’s Name, Merwin Asia 2012
- Gong Ji-young: Human Decency (Bi-lingual, Vol 14 – Women), Asia Publishers 2012
- Choe Yun: The Last of Hanak’o (Bi-lingual, Vol 13 – Women), Asia Publishers 2012
- Oh Jung-hee: Chinatown (Bi-lingual, Vol 11 – Women), Asia Publishers 2012
- Yun Heung-gil: The Man Who Was Left as Nine Pairs of Shoes (Bi-lingual, Vol 8 – Industrialization), Asia Publishers 2012
- Oh Jung-hee: River of Fire and Other Stories, Columbia University Press 2012
- Hwang Sun-won: Lost Souls: Stories, Columbia University Press 2009
- Anthology: The Red Room ed Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton, University of Hawai'i Press 2009
- Choe Yun: There a Petal Silently Falls: 3 stories, Columbia University Press 2008
- Anthology: Land of Exile: Contemporary Korean Fiction (expanded edition) ed Marshall R Pihl, Bruce + Ju-chan Fulton, M.E. Sharpe 2007
- Cho Se-hui: The Dwarf, University of Hawai'i Press 2006
- Oh Jung-hee: Chinatown, Jimoondang 2006
- Gong Ji-young: Human Decency, Jimoondang 2006
- Anthology: Modern Korean Fiction: An Anthology ed Bruce Fulton, Youngmin Kwon, Columbia University Press 2005
- Hwang Sun-won: Trees on a Slope, University of Hawai'i Press 2005
- Yi Ho-cheol: Panmunjom and Other Stories, Eastbridge 2004
- Choe Yun: The Last Of Hanako, Jimoondang 2003
- Chae Man-sik: My Innocent Uncle, Jimoondang 2003
- Hwang Sun-won: A Man, Jimoondang 2003
- Choi In-ho: Deep Blue Night (+ Poplar Tree), Jimoondang 2002
- Anthology: A Ready-Made Life: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction ed Kim Chong-un and Bruce Fulton, University of Hawai'i Press 1998
- Anthology: Wayfarer: New Fiction by Korean Women ed Bruce + Ju-chan Fulton, Women in Translation 1997
- Anthology: Words of Farewell: Stories by Three Korean Women Writers ed Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton, Seal Press 1989
- Song Kijo: Debasement and Other Stories, Fremont 1983
A look back at our 2020 reading diary
Like many readers, we started the year with good intention of blitzing through the pile of new titles that were promised for the coming months, as well as making inroads into the backlog. And we genuinely got off to a good start with a string of fun K-thrillers, some of them new, some not: The […]
SOAS online seminar: One Left, by Kim Soom
It’s been a while since we last had a SOAS Friday evening seminar, but this should be worth the wait. One Left: A powerful tale of trauma and endurance that transformed a nation’s understanding of Korean comfort women Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton (Translators) Friday 4 December 2020, 5 – 7pm Online. Register via Zoom […]
Book review: Cheon Un-yeong — The Catcher in the Loft
Cheon Un-yeong: The Catcher in the Loft Translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Codhill Press, 2019, 191pp Originally published as 생강, Changbi Publishers, 2011 This book came almost out of nowhere. Cheon Un-yeong’s Ali Skips Rope was one of the short stories in the excellent collection The Future of Silence – very approachable, but not […]
Upcoming literature and fiction titles in 2020 [updated]
![Thumbnail for post: Upcoming literature and fiction titles in 2020 [updated]](https://i1.wp.com/londonkoreanlinks.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/upcoming-fiction.jpg?resize=120%2C120&ssl=1)
I’m hoping that, as in previous years, by posting my own list of upcoming literature and fiction titles – pulled together by some targeted searching on Amazon and a trawl through Barbara J Zitwer’s website – I might persuade others to supplement it from their own specialist knowledge. Whatever happens, books inevitably fall through the […]
Brief review: Kim Sagwa – Mina
Kim Sagwa: Mina Translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Two Lines Press, 2018, 237pp Originally published as 미나, Changbi Publishers, 2008. Hell Joseon has become an increasingly familiar context for contemporary Korean literature. But the novels and stories I can think of all focus on the struggles of the poor or those who are just […]
Book review: The Future of Silence – Fiction by Korean Women
The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women Translated and Edited by Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton Zephyr Press, 2016, 193pp When an unexpected book-shaped package landed on my doormat in April 2016 I eagerly opened it, wondering what was inside. I was slightly less enthusiastic when I discovered that it was a collection of short stories […]
Book review: Hwang Sun-won — Lost Souls
Hwang Sun-won: Lost Souls Translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Columbia University Press 2010, 354pp Having quite enjoyed two of Hwang Sun-won’s fuller-length stories – Trees on a Slope and Descendants of Cain – though without necessarily being enamoured of the characters of the stories they inhabited, I was looking forward to tackling Lost Souls, […]
Book Review: Cho Chongnae — How in Heaven’s Name
Cho Chongnae: How in Heaven’s Name Translated by Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton Merwin Asia, 2012, 141 pages. Originally published as 오 하느님 (O God) and renamed 사람의 탈 (Human Mask) How in Heaven’s Name is an appropriate title for the mind-boggling story of how a group of Korean country lads came to be fighting in […]
Book review: Haïlji — The Republic of Užupis
Haïlji: The Republic of Užupis Translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton Dalkey Archive 2014. 160pp Originally published as 우주피스 공화국, Minumsa, 2009. Imagine what Haruki Murakami might come up with in a collaboration with David Lynch, after watching a few monster-free episodes of Doctor Who, and you might get an inkling of what to expect […]
Who Ate Up All The Shinga – a critical essay by Alice Bennell
Alice Bennell, UK winner of last year’s Korean Literature Translation Institute essay contest on “There a Petal Silently Falls”, contributes her entry for this year’s competition. Who Ate Up All the Shinga is an autobiographical novel chronicling the early life of the author, Park Wan-Suh. The Japanese occupation of Korea, and events leading up to […]
Struggling with all the Shinga
Well, I just finished this year's essay book (Park Wan-suh’s Who ate all the Shinga?) and it's even harder than last year. Nothing to get your teeth into. And that wasn’t meant to be a pun. Last year’s text at least gave you a challenge in trying to understand it. This year’s adds very little […]
The 2010 Essay Contest – Who ate up all the Shinga?
Last year, the Korean Literature Translation Institute launched an essay competition to encourage people to read Korean Literature in translation. The title chosen was Ch’oe Yun’s There a Petal Silently Falls – a novella which I personally struggled with. In my own feeble submission, I suggested that a colonial period novel would have been a […]
Petal essay contest Salon des Refusés 3
Peter Corbishley offers his entry into the “There a Petal Silently Falls” essay competition. A Korean novella – a human tragedy It is unnerving to have images from a half-recollected film1 play through a reading of There a Petal Silently Falls.2 Yet that sense of disorientation evocatively models how the girl’s bewildered spirit-awareness3 interweaves, recalls […]
Petal essay contest Salon des Refusés 2
The LKL Editor contributes his own unsuccessful entry into the “There a Petal Silently Falls” essay contest. Ghosts of Kwangju Ch’oe Yun’s There a petal silently falls is an interesting choice for a first Korean literature essay contest. Elusive in content, obscure in characterisation and insubstantial in length, it encourages a discussion not about the […]
Petal essay contest Salon des Refusés 1
Earlier this year the Korean Literature Translation Institute sponsored an essay competition based on Ch’oe Yun’s There a Petal Silently Falls. Now that the finalists have been announced, Michael Rank is the first to offer his submission for publication on the pages of LKL. The Kwangju (Gwangju) massacre of 1980 has been called the most […]