Once upon a time, before there were blogs, there were zines. Like vinyl records, they were perhaps too cumbersome to really thrive in the digital age of instaconvenience, and yet for some, they remain a preferred choice, just as scientific research has proven conclusively that vinyl offers truer, superior sound to CDs or MP3 files. […]
Archives: Books
The Novel in Transition: Gender and Literature in Early Colonial Korea
Having been marginalized from the literature-proper sphere of Confucian elite culture, the novel began to transform significantly at turn of the twentieth century in Korea. Selected novels in transformation that Jooyeon Rhee investigates in this book include both translated and creative historical novels, domestic novels, and crime novels, all of which were produced under the […]
20 Years 20 Days: Reflections from Prison
Exact publication date not known. Visit the publisher’s website for up-to-date info Reflections from Prison is a collection of letters and essays from renowned Korean thinker Shin Young-Bok written during his 20 years as a political prisoner under the military government. The letters range from post cards to tiny characters squeezed onto his Army Prison daily […]
Virtuous Women – Three Classic Korean Novels
Contains the following classics: A nine cloud dream by Kim Man-jung The true history of Queen Inhyŏn The song of a faithful wife, Ch’un-hyang
Late Rainy Season Vacation
Exact 2021 publication date not known According to an interview with the author by the translator, It’s what we call an “omnibus novel” in Korea, where a set of short stories are loosely connected to each other to form a larger narrative. As to what it’s about . . . if I may be a […]
Cursed Bunny
Exact 2021 publication date not known
Violet
Exact 2022 publication date not known NYT-bestselling author of PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOM and winner of the International Man Booker Prize Kyung-Sook Shin’s VIOLET, about a young woman who works in a flower shop and has been shunned by her female high school lover, which sets her apart from society and the world of Seoul.
Korean Short Stories
Contains the following stories: Bare Hills (Kim Dong-in) Adada, the Idiot (Kye Yong-Muk) At the Time When the Buckwheat Blooms (Yi Hyo-Seok) The Third Human Type (An Su-gil) The Echo (O Yong-Su) Silent Parallel (Choi Bum-So) Illusion (Park Kyung-ni) Picture of a Sorceress (Kim Dong-ni)
Trees on the Cliff: a novel of Korea and two stories
Hwang Sun-won (1915-2000) is one of modern Korea’s masters of narrative prose. Trees on a Slope (1960) is his most accomplished novel: one of the few Korean novels to describe in detail the physical and psychological horrors of the Korean War. It is an assured, forceful depiction of three young soldiers in the South Korean […]
Tales of the Strange by a Korean Confucian Monk: Kŭmo sinhwa by Kim Sisŭp
One of the most important and celebrated works of premodern Korean prose fiction, Kŭmo sinhwa (New Tales of the Golden Turtle) is a collection of five tales of the strange artfully written in literary Chinese by Kim Sisŭp (1435–1493). Kim was a major intellectual and poet of the early Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1897), and this book […]
The Green Prodigals: Contemporary Stories and Poems from Korea
No contents list available, though according to the LTI Korea database the volume contains at least one story by Kim Dong-ni According to WorldCat there are copies in Oxford and Sheffield university libraries.
The Stars and other Korean short stories
Bruce Fulton describes this collection as a “good sampling of a consummate short story writer; includes an excellent introduction.” in his article on The Korean War and Beyond, in Modern Korean Fiction in Asianstudies.org. Contains the following stories: A Matter of Custom A Numerical Enigma An Old Man’s Birthday Coarse Sand Conch Shells The Calf […]
North Korean Writers in Exile PEN Literature (VOLUME Book 4)
North Korean Writers in Exile PEN Center is the 144th member of PEN International. Since defecting from North Korea because of their opposition to the dynastic dictatorship, the members of the center have been creating literature that depicts the harsh reality of North Korea and engaging in various activities to improve conditions there. The single […]
Surfacing Sadness: A Centennial of Korean-American Literature 1903-2003
This book is published to commemorate the centennial of the first landing of Korean immigrants in America in 1903. An anthology of poems, essays and short stories by thirty-seven Korean-American writers, Surfacing Sadness is the first serious effort to bring together the Korean-American literary experiences to join mainstream American literature. The book primarily contains translations […]
The Rabbit’s Tale 2020
The Korean classical novel Rabbit’s Tale (kor. Toggijeon) tells the story of a Dragon King who falls ill, and learns that only the special properties found in a rabbit’s liver can make him well again. He sends a terrapin ashore to find the rabbit and trick him into coming to the Dragon Palace. The rabbit […]
Sky, Wind and Stars
Born and raised in northern Manchuria during the colonial period of Korea, Yun Dong-ju was a poet of the utmost purity, beauty, and sincerity. His posthumously published collection of poems under the title Sky, wind, stars, and poems is one of the all-time favorites of Korean readers. Wishing not to have so much as a […]
King Sejong: A Novel
No synopsis available. The National Library of Australia categorises the book as biographical fiction. This title is pretty hard to find outside of university libraries.