Gong Ji young is one of the best known of the new wave of women writers who broke into the South Korean literary establishment in the 1980s and 1990s. Her earlier works chronicle the 1980s and the students who like the author herself came of age during that decade of violent protest and political upheaval … [Read More]
Booklist: Korean literature in translation (page 43)
Journey to Seoul
No information available. Book is available from Seoul Selection and LTI Korea. Read Brother Anthony’s essay on Kim Kwang-kyu’s poetic vistion here. [Read More]
Weathered Blossom (bilingual)
Part of the Modern Korean Short Stories Series, the short story Weathered Blossom (bilingual) illustrates elders in love, but also discerns the substance of love, and distance between reality and feeling of love. The lady believes that love is beautiful only with lust, as it is the only way to be blinded. Thus she realizes … [Read More]
The Depths of a Clam
From the publisher’s website: Kim Kwang-kyu was born in Seoul in 1941 and is a professor in the German language and literature department at Hanyang University. He has written poetry sharply critical of the abuses of human dignity caused by corrupt politics and the structural contradictions brought about by the industrialization of society. Brother Anthony teaches … [Read More]
Even Birds Leave the World
From the publisher’s website: Ji-Woo Hwang’s poems describe a life governed by the inescapable reality that all hell may break loose at any time, a reality that now permeates our own culture. His poems mix lyrical intensity with an acute political sensibility, creating an uneasy tension that makes them by turns moving, humorous, and unnerving. … [Read More]
Because of the Rain: A Selection of Korean Zen Poems
From the publisher’s website: Buddhism was introduced to Korea via China in the fifth century and similar to China and Japan a long tradition of Zen poetry developed. This collection spans 1,500 years of this tradition with a selection of the key poets and teachers starting with Great Master Wonhyo the founder of Korean Zen … [Read More]
Echoing Song: Contemporary Korean Women Poets
From the publisher’s website: Echoing Song presents the work of 20 contemporary Korean women poets active from the 1970s to the present. Each poet is represented with 10 to 15 poems reflecting the range of their poetic development. This anthology demonstrates the originality and variety of modern Korean women’s poetry. The poets include Yi Hyangji, No … [Read More]
The Dog Thief: Short Stories by Chul-Woo Lim
As a college student, Chul-Woo Lim witnessed the Kwangju Uprising during which hundreds of prodemocracy protesters were massacred by the South Korean government of Chun Doo Hwan. Lim’s desire to bear witness to this tragic event became one of the motivating forces behind his writing. One year after the massacre, Lim published his first short … [Read More]
Three Plays: The Cow – The Mud Hut – The Donkey
From the publisher’s website: In his study Irish Influences on Korean Theatre during the 1920s and 1930s, Won-Jae Jang alerted scholars to a previously unexamined example of intercultural exchange in which Korean scholars looked to Irish writers and especially Irish dramatists to help them find a way of freeing themselves from the cultural imperialism of Japan. … [Read More]
Strength from Sorrow
Translated from the Korean by Youngju Ryu. Yang Guija’s STRENGTH FROM SORROW is a collection of five stories, “Mountain Flowers,” “The Road to Cheonma Tomb,” “An Opportunist,” “The Hidden Flower,” and “Strength from Sorrow.” The title story features a group of teachers who struggle to uphold their conscience as educators in an era of authoritarian … [Read More]
The Love of Dunhuang
Translated from the Korean by Kyung-nyun Kim Richards and Steffen F. Richards. Yun Humyong’s first novel, THE LOVE OF DUNHUANG, originally published in Korea in 1982, takes as its theme the melancholoy and despair common to contemporary life. The main character/narrator is unemployed after having quit his job as a magazine reporter. He barely survives … [Read More]
Cracking the Shell: Three Korean Ecopoets
From the publisher’s website: This poetry anthology contains ninety poems by three prominent Korean ecopoets who write about the endangered environment and deplore its impact on nature and mankind. Seungho Choi’s poetry is filled with explicit descriptions and pessimism that condemn the capitalist society and man’s selfish desires, which, he believes, can ultimately ruin the … [Read More]
Life and Poems of Three Koreans: Kim Chi-Ha, Ko Un, Yang Song-Oo
From the publisher’s website: Harold Hakwon Sunoo was born on Feb. 2, 1918 in Pyongyang. On August, 1938, he came to the United States to meet his grandfather, Tom Sunoo, who came to the USA in 1904. Harold married Helen Sonia Shinn on Feb. 6, 1943 in San Francisco. He has two sons and three … [Read More]
The Guest
Based on actual events, The Guest is a profound portrait of a divided people haunted by a painful past, and a generation’s search for reconciliation. During the Korean War, Hwanghae Province in North Korea was the setting of a gruesome fifty-two day massacre. In an act of collective amnesia the atrocities were attributed to American … [Read More]
Modern Korean Fiction: An Anthology
To represent the past century of Korean fiction, this definitive collection extends beyond familiar writers, challenges cultural norms, and crosses political borders. By including stories from neglected female, North Korean, and wolbuk writers (those who migrated to the North after 1945 and whose works were widely banned in South Korea) and by bringing politically engaged … [Read More]
Buja’s Diary
From Korea comes a collection of incisive observant short stories by a leading artist. Reading these thirteen exceptional stories is an experience similar to appreciating a touching poem or watching a series of stills from a silent movie. Combining the traits of different artistic genres, O has indeed created his own world of comic art. … [Read More]