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56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Kevin O’Rourke Prize winner Peace Lee
Peace Lee / Courtesy of Peace Lee
By Kim Se-jeong
Cover of Hyun Ki-young's short story collection, which includes "Iron and Flesh"/ Courtesy of Changbi Publishers
Born to Christian missionary parents and raised across multiple countries, Peace Lee, winner of this year's Kevin O’Rourke Prize, grew up with a keen sense of language and translation.
“By the time I entered college, I’d already moved more than 20 times. My parents were missionaries, so we left Korea when I was 5 and settled in the Philippines, where I first became aware of the multiplicity of languages. English, Tagalog, regional dialects and even traces of Spanish coexisted in the same air,” the Korean American said.
“I remember being 7, fascinated that there were so many ways to say something as simple as ‘eight.’ That early wonder shaped how I came to see the world.”
Currently residing in the U.S., Lee discovered the beauty of translation while studying at a theological seminary, where she was training to become a preacher and teacher of homiletics.
“I still remember translating a homiletics article from Korean to English during graduate school. Inside it was a single literary quotation — and the joy of translating that one passage lit something in me. I thought, 'this is what I want to do,'” the winner recalled.
Eventually, Lee left her theological career to pursue literary translation full time. She is now working on an English translation of Hyun Ki-young’s three-volume epic "O Jejudo," as well as several of his short stories.
She encountered Hyun’s writing during a pivotal moment in her life.
“I discovered his work in 2017, when I returned to Korea for the first time in nearly two decades. That trip was deeply personal — a homecoming to bless my beginnings, honor my ancestors and understand where I came from,” she said.
During the trip, Lee traveled to Jeju Island for a peace forum and joined a "dark pilgrimage," walking through Jeju April 3 Massacre sites, visiting the 4.3 Peace Museum and listening to survivors' testimonies.
"That experience changed me. It was there I first heard Hyun's name, a writer who had been imprisoned and tortured for daring to write about the genocide on his island," she said. "I was so moved by his courage that I carried home a copy of 'Aunt Suni,' his landmark novella.”
After that trip, Lee left the church and her teaching position.
"[The trip] dismantled the moral world I’d inherited and forced me to confront how faith, when unexamined, can become an instrument of violence. From that moment, I began to dream of turning away from institutional ministry toward the quieter, riskier work of witness — through literature and translation," she recalled.
Working on "Iron and Flesh" was particularly challenging, because of the abundance of sajaseongeo, four-character expressions derived from Chinese characters, and the use of Jeju dialect.
“But emotionally, the hardest part was the material itself. Each anecdote in 'Iron and Flesh' is marked as ‘based on a true story.’ To sit with that — to translate lines born of real violence and real loss — was often overwhelming,” she said.
Winning the translation award honoring Kevin O’Rourke is more than a professional recognition for Lee — it is a validation of her decision to follow her true calling.
“After leaving the church and ministry, I began truly listening to my own calling — and it led me here. Even though translation isn’t the most ‘secure’ field, especially with AI on the rise and publishing under pressure, it’s the work of my dreams. I can’t imagine doing anything else,” she said.
“My translation practice has become more than a profession: it’s a way of being in the world — a way of listening, bridging and honoring voices that might otherwise remain unheard.”
Lee has a long list of Korean writers she wants to translate into English.
“Not just for myself, but for the Korean diaspora and for the younger version of me who searched library shelves for Asian and Asian American books and found so few. Now that there is a growing abundance, I want to help widen that circle.”