57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Grand Prize winner Breanna Hundley

For Breanna Hundley, the horror in a story about a woman struggling to recover her rental deposit felt close to home.

Having experienced a deposit scare while living in Seoul, the American translator was drawn to Cho Ye-eun’s “How to Get Your Deposit Back,” which transforms an ordinary financial worry into something frightening.

Her English translation won the fiction Grand Prize in the 57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, organized by The Korea Times. The prize is awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

“I selected ‘How to Get Your Deposit Back’ because I found it fascinating that Cho Ye-eun could take something as mundane as a security deposit and turn it into a horror story,” Hundley said in a written interview. “She has a particular talent for writing scenes so vividly that they almost feel cinematic.”

Hundley saw the story’s housing anxiety as something readers across borders could recognize. She also wanted to convey its shifting emotions, from stress and frustration to fear and excitement.

“Rather than simply telling readers how the protagonist feels, I tried to use language that would allow them to experience those emotions alongside her and become immersed in the story,” she said.

That required navigating Korean housing terminology. The word “villa,” for example, might suggest a luxurious standalone home to overseas readers — an image at odds with the protagonist’s moldy wallpaper and cheap flooring. Hundley instead translated it as a “low-rise, multi-unit residential building” to clarify the distinction.

Her path to translation developed across countries and through music.

Born in Maryland to a mother serving in the Air Force, Hundley moved to Okinawa, Japan, at the age of 4. Back in the United States, she studied Spanish in seventh grade and began teaching herself Japanese at 14 after discovering an anime song.

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she double-majored in global studies and Japanese language and culture, with a minor in Spanish.

Discovering K-pop group EXO in 2014 inspired her to study Korean. She later took Korean classes at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she earned a master’s degree in East Asian studies.

After seven years as a technical Japanese translator, Hundley moved to Japan in 2021 to work as an interpreter and translator through the JET Program. In 2022, she moved to Seoul to attend the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.

Choosing horror for the competition nevertheless gave her pause. Previously advised to consult past entries when selecting a work, she wondered how this story would be received. Winning reinforced the importance of trusting her own instincts.

“I should also trust my own instincts and choose stories that resonate with me, not just those I think will appeal to a particular audience,” she said.

At the Seoul International Book Fair in 2023, Hundley met Cho at a signing and told her she hoped to translate one of her works someday.

“I hope that this award brings me one step closer to achieving this goal,” she said.

She is now reading emerging and lesser-known authors, compiling a translation wish list and planning to apply for grants.

“It has encouraged me to continue seeking out stories that speak to me and to trust that my own enthusiasm for a work can be a worthwhile starting point for sharing it with others.”