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| Korean authors Han Kang, left, and Kim Cho-yeop / Courtesy of Munhakdongne, Hubble |
By Park Han-sol
As a string of translated Korean literary works continue to gain global recognition, online and in-person book talks joined by 12 award-winning Korean writers will travel across the world until the end of this year.
Hosted by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), the 2022 K-Literature Talks program consists of 12 dialogue sessions between best-selling Korean authors and their international counterparts ― novelists, translators and publishers ― followed by live Q&A sessions with readers.
All talks will revolve around the writers' works that have been translated into the host country's language within the last three years. These countries include Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
The event kicked off in April during this year's Bogota International Book Fair in Colombia, with a virtual talk that invited Han Kang to discuss her 1997 short story, "The Fruit of My Woman." The story is referred to as a "direct precursor" of "The Vegetarian" that took home the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, according to its translator Deborah Smith.
The rest of the talks with other 11 writers, who have delved into a wide range of genres such as science fiction, thriller and queer fiction, are scheduled to be rolled out by November, LTI Korea said. Online events will be livestreamed through the organization's official YouTube channel.
Nine authors have been unveiled so far, with two of the sessions already ending on a high note last week: poet Jeong Ho-seung's "Loving" in Vietnam and Cheon Seon-ran's "A Thousand Blues" in Japan.
Cheon was joined by her translator Kang Bang-hwa and Japanese science fiction writer Haruna Ikezawa to discuss the sci-fi literary landscape of the two countries.
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| Novelist Park Sang-young, whose queer fiction "Love in the Big City" was longlisted for this year's International Booker Prize / Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seok |
On Sept. 14, Park Sang-young, who penned "Love in the Big City," and its translator Anton Hur, will virtually meet readers in the U.K. The novel was one of two Korean literary pieces, along with Chung Bora's "Cursed Bunny," which were in the running for this year's International Booker Prize.
In November, Lee Jung-myung, who rose to literary stardom after penning historical fictions like "Painter of the Wind" and "The Deep-Rooted Tree," will visit Turkey to address readers about his book, "The Boy Who Escaped Paradise."
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