Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
DMZ World Literature Festa to discuss peace with Nobel winner Alexievich
A poster for the 2026 DMZ World Literature Festa / Courtesy of 2026 DMZ World Literature Festa Organizing Committee
By Lee Hae-rin
Nobel Prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich
Against the backdrop of barbed wire and guard posts of the inter-Korean border, writers from around the world, including Nobel Prize-winning Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich, will gather to ask what literature can do in an age of war, division and democratic backsliding this weekend.
Titled “Out of the Land of Silence with the Language of Life,” the event will run from Friday to Sunday at Camp Greaves inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Paju’s Book City, featuring 150 authors, including Alexievich, Korean literary heavyweight Hwang Sok-yong and writers from conflict zones and migrant communities around the world.
Co-hosted by Gyeonggi Province, the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation and the Writers Association of Korea, the three-day event and its companion book fair “Between Pages” aim to spotlight literature’s role in promoting peace, coexistence and human dignity.
On Friday, Alexievich, best known in Korea for “The Unwomanly Face of War,” will deliver a keynote speech on the 2020 Belarus protests and speech as resistance under authoritarian rule.
Hwang, who recently returned with “Grandma,” a novel about a 500-year-old hackberry tree, will underscore the symbolic weight of the DMZ and call for overcoming the peninsula’s 73-year division.
A poster for the book fair Between Pages / Courtesy of 2026 DMZ World Literature Festa Organizing Committee
Overseas writers such as Palestinian author Ahlam Bsharat, Sierra Leonean writer Ishmael Beah, Filipino author Sarge Lacuesta and South African writer Zukile Jama will join Korean authors, such as Jeong Ji-a, Cho Hae-jin, Choi Jin-young and others for a series of talks and debates.
On Saturday and Sunday, the focus will shift to the Forest of Wisdom in Paju Book City, where the book fair Between Pages will bring together some 70 independent bookstores, small presses and artists from across the country.
Centering neighborhood bookstores rather than major publishers, the fair will offer a curated selection of lesser-known titles that convey messages of life, peace and coexistence, along with author talks, performances and workshops.
Former President Moon Jae-in, who runs the Pyeongsan Bookstore in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, is expected to attend as a bookseller on Saturday.
The closing day will feature a peace ceremony, a DMZ peace tour and the adoption of a joint declaration on life, peace and coexistence by participants.
Detailed program information is available on the festival’s official website.