A debut English-language collection of hopeful and carefully attentive poems by one of South Korea’s most lauded young poets. This collection offers a selection of poems from Sin Yong-mok’s earlier collections, intended to serve as an illustration of his evolution as a poet, alongside a complete translation of the poems from his fourth collection, When … [Read More]
Booklist: Korean literature in translation (page 11)
A Mark of Red Honor
This autobiographical novel narrated by the author’s eponymous character candidly shares the story of his birth, childhood as a sensitive boy, school years marked by infatuations with a male friend and teacher, military service as superiors’ favorite, agony as a newlywed realizing that he is unfit for marriage, roving through China as a North Korean … [Read More]
Encore (K-Poet 30)
“Somewhere, no matter how hard you try to hide it, there will be a light that will not recede.” Poet Shin Dong-ok’s 『Encore』 The 30th collection of poems in the K-Poet series, which meets together in Korean and English, has been published, and poet Shin Dong-ok’s 『Encore』 has been published. Since his debut in 2001, … [Read More]
Chunja’s Nanjing
Chunja’s Nanjing explores in depth the tragic events of the 1930s dubbed the “Tragedy in Deer Valley” in Jiandao, a historical border region along the north bank of the Tumen River in China’s Jilin Province with many ethnic Koreans, in the beginning of the novel and the “Rape of Nanjing” in Nanjing, China, at the … [Read More]
Death of a Crow
The 1957 publication of this inaugural collection of short stories on the 1948 uprising on Jeju Island was to inform the world of the incident Kim Sok-pom has devoted his writing career to raising awareness of the Jeju April 3 Incident through literature. Death of a Crow (1957) marked the beginning of his campaign; known … [Read More]
I’ll Give You All My Promenade (K-Poet 29)
The moment it is removed, the text becomes detached from the artist and becomes an object floating in the world. Every time the reader reads, the poet’s walk toward “you” is constantly made into the present. So the poet leaves us with a message addressed to “you”. You” are to give everyone their own path … [Read More]
Saha
In a country called ‘Town’, Su is found dead in an abandoned car. The suspected killer is presumed to come from the Saha Estates. Town is a privatised country, controlled by a secretive organisation known as the Seven Premiers. It is a society clearly divided into the haves and have-nots and those who have the … [Read More]
My GrandMom
From an award-winning Korean author comes a charming and joyful story of the bond between a little girl and her grandma. Gee-eun is a little girl whose parents work a lot. So she spends her days with her beloved grandmother. Grandma comforts Gee-eun when she’s sad to see her parents leaving and shares in all … [Read More]
Counting the Stars at Night: The Complete Works in Verse and Prose
This book contains the complete works of Yoon Dong-ju (1917-1945), one of the most beloved poets for all Koreans, and is the first attempt at English translation in their entirety, poetry and prose. Yoon’s writings reflect the ardor and longing lodged in every young man’s and woman’s heart. In that sense, the poems contained herein … [Read More]
Launch Something!
Earth is experiencing a sweltering heatwave caused by a second “sun” – a shining object in the sky that either looks like Pac-Man or a pizza missing a slice, depending on who you ask. As this object increases in size and risks making Earth uninhabitable, the Korean government decides it has to do its part … [Read More]
The Picture Bride
“Your husband is a landowner,” they told her. “Food and clothing is so plentiful, it grows on trees.” “You will be able to go to school.” Of the three lies the matchmaker told Willow before she left home as a picture bride in 1918, the third hurt the most. Never one to be deterred, Willow … [Read More]
The Age of Doubt
The Age of Doubt collects some of Pak Kyongni’s most famous works, including her 1955 debut and other stories featuring characters that would appear in her 21-volume epic, Toji. Many of Pak’s stories reflect her own turbulent experiences during the period following the Korean war and the various South Korean dictatorships throughout the twentieth century. … [Read More]
A Morning with only Writing Left (K-Poet 28)
I opened my eyes Rhodopsin had disintegrated. He wasn’t there and the candle was weeping alone. I missed him who had disappeared. Time transitioned into a story, and I saw the shadow of a moving tree outside the window and the feathers of a bird flapping its wings and flying from a branch. It was … [Read More]
Nearly All Happiness (K-Poet 27)
Holding hands, we walk along Banghak Stream. Wherever he points, I find a poem. On some days, taking the form of ducks; on others, taking after white-naped cranes. Black koi swirl the clear water like brush strokes, and therein lies another poem. A poem rippling. Scattering. Startling tiny minnows. Fleeing from grey herons. From“ Poet’s … [Read More]
Broken Summer
A death, a lie, a secret. For twenty-six summers he didn’t have the courage to face the past. Lee Hanjo is an artist at the peak of his fame, envied and celebrated. Then, on his forty-third birthday, he awakens to find that his devoted wife has disappeared, leaving behind a soon-to-be-published novel she’d secretly written … [Read More]
Grotesque Weather and Good People
A debut English translation of contemporary free verse poetry by award-winning South Korean poet and novelist Lim Solah. By turns humorous and dark, these poems explore the simultaneous intimacy and alienation of everyday life in urban Seoul. Writing in a simple vernacular, Lim’s lyric I struggles with the poet’s call to “wonder” in a world … [Read More]