By Kim Ji-myung
The three winners of the 2017 Global Korean Literature Translation Award ― Agnel Joseph, Sung Eungee and Janet Hong ― beamed at the award ceremony on December 11 in front of the judges (except for one in New York), gurus and friends of the community for Korean literature in English.
Among participants in the ceremony were Dr. Kim Seong-kon, president of LTI Korea, Prof. Ross King of the University of British Columbia, Prof. Wayne de Fremery, Prof. Krys Lee, Prof. Chung Eun-gui and Prof. Sora Kim-Russell. Novelist Bae Suah came to the ceremony to meet her translator Janet Hong, who flew from Vancouver.
Announcing the final winners of the prize, Prof. Lee Young-joon, chief of the screening committee, said: "Suggestive of the diversity that defines Korean literature today, the final selections for the Literary/Translation Prize reflect an astonishing breadth of experience and variety of styles."
"Close," written by Park Min-gyu and translated by Joseph, won the grand prize for its "subtle, humane storytelling," the judges' statement said. "The story, which confronts death and the ways we evaluate a life, is sensitive and fresh. Readers are sent along an emotionally compelling journey that enables them to inhabit the life and thoughts of a protagonist facing what we all must, an end that is as inevitable as it is surprising."
Joseph won the 2013 Korea Times Modern Korean Literature Translation Award and the 2013 LTI Korea Award for Aspiring Translators. He was selected for the Emerging Translator Mentoring Program by the Writers' Centre Norwich, UK, in 2016.
He thanked writer Park for the story that won him the award. "Your trademark lyrical enjambments, creative word play, killer humor and unpredictable storylines are the stuff of a reader's dreams and a translator's nightmares," Joseph said in his acceptance speech.
The first prize winner was Sung Eungee, a translator and interpreter working at a hospital. She says she is an advocate for women's rights. Kim Ae-ran's "Forever a Narrator" is her first Korean-English translation of a literary work.
"Forever a Narrator" is a quirky, wholly original narrative, a bold, voice-driven, social commentary about how we create and shape our lives in cyberspace. According to Prof. Lee, it asks how we get to tell our stories to one another and ourselves in our digital moments.
Sung thanked translator Deborah Smith and writer Han Kang for winning the Man Booker Prize and opening her eyes to the world of literary translation. Sung is new to literary translation, but she has been working as a translator, interpreter and writing coach for the past 12 years since graduating from Stanford University with a B.A. in Psychology.
She plans to further hone her translation and interpretation skills at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and work as a literary translator with a focus on delivering women's voices.
"Sister Thieves," translated by Janet Hong, was the judge's choice for third prize.
"It is an accomplished translation of a dark and strange story," the judges' statement said. "What has been stolen from the sisters? And what have they stolen? The story's vivid, terse language of trauma, rendered sensitively by this translation, compels and rewards slow, careful investigation."
Hong said she had caught the Bae Suah fever belatedly and "felt compelled to ask her if the story was part of a collection and, if so, if I could be the one to translate it."
Miraculously, Bae Suah not only gave Hong her heartiest blessing, but also shared the manuscript with the translator even before it was published, Hong said.
As organizer of this newly launched Korean Literature Translation Award project, I hope people will agree to give the grade "A" to the Korea Heritage Education Institute (KHEI) for the first year's performance. A total of 44 applications were received, including 152 poems by seven translators, 34 short stories by 28 translators and nine full-length novels by nine translators. Of those, eight passed the preliminary review.
The GKL translation award is managed by the non-profit, independent KHEI. Funding comes from the public sector, earned from tourism business from foreigners. The KHEI's target is to discover professional and hidden talents in literary translation who will play significant roles in offering Korean stories worldwide.
Kim Ji-myung is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is Heritagekorea21@gmail.com.
The three winners of the 2017 Global Korean Literature Translation Award ― Agnel Joseph, Sung Eungee and Janet Hong ― beamed at the award ceremony on December 11 in front of the judges (except for one in New York), gurus and friends of the community for Korean literature in English.
Among participants in the ceremony were Dr. Kim Seong-kon, president of LTI Korea, Prof. Ross King of the University of British Columbia, Prof. Wayne de Fremery, Prof. Krys Lee, Prof. Chung Eun-gui and Prof. Sora Kim-Russell. Novelist Bae Suah came to the ceremony to meet her translator Janet Hong, who flew from Vancouver.
Announcing the final winners of the prize, Prof. Lee Young-joon, chief of the screening committee, said: "Suggestive of the diversity that defines Korean literature today, the final selections for the Literary/Translation Prize reflect an astonishing breadth of experience and variety of styles."
"Close," written by Park Min-gyu and translated by Joseph, won the grand prize for its "subtle, humane storytelling," the judges' statement said. "The story, which confronts death and the ways we evaluate a life, is sensitive and fresh. Readers are sent along an emotionally compelling journey that enables them to inhabit the life and thoughts of a protagonist facing what we all must, an end that is as inevitable as it is surprising."
Joseph won the 2013 Korea Times Modern Korean Literature Translation Award and the 2013 LTI Korea Award for Aspiring Translators. He was selected for the Emerging Translator Mentoring Program by the Writers' Centre Norwich, UK, in 2016.
He thanked writer Park for the story that won him the award. "Your trademark lyrical enjambments, creative word play, killer humor and unpredictable storylines are the stuff of a reader's dreams and a translator's nightmares," Joseph said in his acceptance speech.
The first prize winner was Sung Eungee, a translator and interpreter working at a hospital. She says she is an advocate for women's rights. Kim Ae-ran's "Forever a Narrator" is her first Korean-English translation of a literary work.
"Forever a Narrator" is a quirky, wholly original narrative, a bold, voice-driven, social commentary about how we create and shape our lives in cyberspace. According to Prof. Lee, it asks how we get to tell our stories to one another and ourselves in our digital moments.
Sung thanked translator Deborah Smith and writer Han Kang for winning the Man Booker Prize and opening her eyes to the world of literary translation. Sung is new to literary translation, but she has been working as a translator, interpreter and writing coach for the past 12 years since graduating from Stanford University with a B.A. in Psychology.
She plans to further hone her translation and interpretation skills at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and work as a literary translator with a focus on delivering women's voices.
"Sister Thieves," translated by Janet Hong, was the judge's choice for third prize.
"It is an accomplished translation of a dark and strange story," the judges' statement said. "What has been stolen from the sisters? And what have they stolen? The story's vivid, terse language of trauma, rendered sensitively by this translation, compels and rewards slow, careful investigation."
Hong said she had caught the Bae Suah fever belatedly and "felt compelled to ask her if the story was part of a collection and, if so, if I could be the one to translate it."
Miraculously, Bae Suah not only gave Hong her heartiest blessing, but also shared the manuscript with the translator even before it was published, Hong said.
As organizer of this newly launched Korean Literature Translation Award project, I hope people will agree to give the grade "A" to the Korea Heritage Education Institute (KHEI) for the first year's performance. A total of 44 applications were received, including 152 poems by seven translators, 34 short stories by 28 translators and nine full-length novels by nine translators. Of those, eight passed the preliminary review.
The GKL translation award is managed by the non-profit, independent KHEI. Funding comes from the public sector, earned from tourism business from foreigners. The KHEI's target is to discover professional and hidden talents in literary translation who will play significant roles in offering Korean stories worldwide.
Kim Ji-myung is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is Heritagekorea21@gmail.com.
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