Seeing that I invested a bit of time in pulling together some discussion material for the culture panel at the Korea Symposium on 29 September I thought I’d share some of the slides together with the gist of what I was trying to say. I was trying to trace, as objectively as possible, what one … [Read More]
Category: Translated Korean literature
Capitalists Must Starve Launch Party with Park Seolyeon and Anton Hur
Join Tilted Axis Press for the London launch of Capitalists Must Starve, a radical feminist novel by award-winning Korean author Park Seolyeon, translated into English by Anton Hur. Set in 1930s Pyongyang, Capitalists Must Starve follows a young factory worker who leads a historic strike, bringing to life the fierce spirit of women and workers … [Read More]
Anton Hur: Prizing Korean Literature
Join Wasafiri and Anton Hur to explore the future of Korean literature on a global stage and discuss literary prize cultures and translation. Following his essay for the Wasafiri website, ‘We Have Arrived: Anton Hur on Han Kang’s Nobel Win’ – where he brought his trademark wit to reflect on the ‘earthquake’ moment of Han … [Read More]
K-Book Festival: Cheon Seon Ran in Conversation
Join prize-winning author Cheon Seon-Ran for an afternoon of conversation at Foyles about her heartfelt and beautifully told novel, A Thousand Blues. From its perch on top of a pile of junk inside a shed, Coli, a robot with powerful observational qualities, waits patiently for someone to find it. Coli is special among humanoids. This is … [Read More]
An evening with Yun Ko-eun at Waterstones
Spend an evening with Yun Ko-eun celebrating the release of her novel Art on Fire. Yun Ko-eun was born in Seoul in 1980. In 2004, the year she graduated from university, her short story ‘Piercing’ won the Daesan Literary Award for College Students. In 2008, she received the Hankyorek Literature Award for her novel The … [Read More]
Bora Chung: The Midnight Timetable
Hear from the author of Cursed Bunny on her new novel, The Midnight Timetable, a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time’s greatest imaginations. Bora Chung, author of the National Book Award finalist and International Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, discusses her novel The Midnight Timetable, equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny and … [Read More]
Hwang Sok-yong: The Voice of a Divided Nation
With a five-decade-long writing career and Korea’s most prestigious literary prizes under his belt, Hwang Sok-yong is unmatched in depicting the social and political realities of his ruptured homeland. A staunch promoter of the arts, he spent years in exile and prison. It’s a rare honour to welcome him to the Festival, discussing his remarkable life and … [Read More]
Brick Lane Bookshop hosts debut double bill featuring Heuijung Hur
Brick Lane Bookshop is thrilled to welcome Heuijung Hur and Rowe Irvin to the store for a special double bill event. Hur will read from their debut collection of genre-defying short stories, Failed Summer Vacation; dreamy, dark, and surreal tales that bend reality and linger in the mind. Irvin presents Life Cycle of a Moth, … [Read More]
Jieun Kiaer: Seoul Mothers and the Poetry of Rice
Join Professor Jieun Kiaer for a special evening of storytelling, poetry, and food — an exploration of Korean motherhood, memory, and everyday love. Jieun will talk about her newly released novel Seoul Mothers — a powerful and poignant story of three women navigating parenting, ambition, and identity in contemporary Seoul. She will also share selected … [Read More]
Kim Hyesoon & Will Harris: Autobiography of Death
Join the London Review Bookshop for an evening of poetry with Kim Hyesoon, one South Korea’s foremost poets. Her groundbreaking and radically feminist poetry – ‘a transnational collision of shamanism, Modernism, and feminism’ (Griffin Prize Judges) – has been translated into English by poet Don Mee Choi for over a decade. We celebrate the latest … [Read More]
Failed Summer Vacation: Heuijung Hur in conversation with Barry Pierce
To mark the UK release of Failed Summer Vacation, the Korean Cultural Centre UK invites you to an evening of literary conversation with acclaimed author Heuijung Hur, in dialogue with editor and literary critic Barry Pierce. Failed Summer Vacation is Hur’s award-winning debut collection of short stories, first published in Korea and now introduced to … [Read More]
Book talk: Sohn Won-Pyung’s Counterattacks at Thirty
In celebration of the UK publication of ‘Counterattacks at Thirty’ by Sohn Won-Pyung, the KCC is bringing you an online event featuring translator Sean Lin Halbert and Anton Hur, an award-winning translator of Cursed Bunny, Love in the Big City, and author of Toward Eternity. We’ll be diving into: – The art of translation … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Bestselling and beloved – Korean Literary Treasures
While primarily envisaged as a home for temporary displays of visuals arts, the KCC exhibition space over the years has hosted a number of exhibitions featuring historical or literary themes. 2024 started, for example, with an exhibition looking at the early relations between the UK and Korea, celebrating 140 years of diplomatic relations, and later … [Read More]
Snowy Day – a new collection of Lee Chang-dong short stories
I’ve been following Korean literature in translation now for around 25 years. Back in the day, I’d buy everything I could lay my hands on – after all, there wasn’t much of it around, so there wasn’t much financial commitment involved. At the time, most of the literature available was originally written more than thirty … [Read More]
2024 in review part 2 – the books that caught our eye
2024 was a busy year for Korea-related books in English. Over one hundred books from the year made their way into the LKL Korea Book DataBase, and there were many more that didn’t make the cut. As translated Korean literature becomes ever more prominent in our bookstores, 2024 was, of course, the year in which … [Read More]
Between Popular and Canonical Texts: Curating Korean Literature in Cross-Cultural Contexts
KCCUK are delighted to announce a distinguished event on 16th January, featuring Dr. Grace Koh from SOAS University of London. This special evening offers an exceptional opportunity to explore the beauty of Korean literature and its profound significance in the UK, through an engaging dialogue with Dr. Grace Koh. In this seminar, Grace Koh will … [Read More]