Lifestyle - The Korea Times

K-LIT REVIEW Reality TV becomes reality in Soyoung Park's sci-fi YA novel 'Snowglobe'

"Snowglobe," written by Soyoung Park and translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort, is a sci-fi YA novel about uncovering the secrets of a climate-controlled city called Snowglobe. It was originally published in Korean in 2020. The sequel will come out in spring 2025. The novel features strong worldbuilding. Also, it is effectively surprising to the reader when what you thought the entire book was built on was really something entirely different. However, the book leans heavily on its plot, and I feel more character development is needed. The author included a lot of details to make this dystopian world seem plausible. The world is frozen over except for Snowglobe, where actors and directors make reality TV shows for the rest of the world to watch. However, the directors pull the strings behind the scenes. The background actors, called ‘the licorice’, also get paid a lot of money, even though they are just in the background. I like how it reflects the real world more realistically than other sci-fi stories I’ve read — it explores the complexities of both high society and the lower cla

Apr 21, 2025By Beatrice Nickolai

[K-LIT REVIEW] Reality TV becomes reality in Soyoung Park's sci-fi YA novel 'Snowglobe'

No win for 'Your Utopia' at Philip K. Dick Award, but Bora Chung still makes history

Bora Chung’s short story collection “Your Utopia,” translated by Anton Hur, did not take home this year’s Philip K. Dick Award. The top honor went instead to Brenda Peynado’s “Time’s Agent,” as announced Friday (local time) at Norwescon in Seattle. Named after the iconic American sci-fi visionary, the Philip K. Dick Award has recognized outstanding works of science fiction originally published in paperback in the U.S. since 1983. Chung made history as the first Korean writer ever nominated in the prize’s 42-year run. "Your Utopia” was also just the third translated work to be recognized, following special citations for “Harmony” by Project Itoh, translated from Japanese by Alexander O. Smith, in 2011 and "In the Mothers' Land" by Elisabeth Vonarburg, translated from French by Jane Brierley, in 1992. Like her acclaimed collection “Cursed Bunny” — a finalist for both the 2022 International Booker Prize and the 2023 National Book Award — “Your Utopia” showcases the writer’s signature blend of the surreal and the tender. Across eight genre-defying storie

Apr 19, 2025By Park Han-sol

No win for 'Your Utopia' at Philip K. Dick Award, but Bora Chung still makes history

Han Kang to release first book since Nobel win

Korean author Han Kang will publish her first book since receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature last December, her publisher said Thursday. The essay collection, titled "Light and Thread," will be released next Thursday by Moonji Publishing Company. It marks the ninth volume in the publisher's ongoing essay series and shares its title with Han's Nobel lecture, delivered in Stockholm, ahead of the award ceremony. The book will feature about 10 pieces, comprising Han's Nobel lecture, previously published poems and diary-like essays that reflect on her experiences with poetry, gardening and the act of writing itself. Roughly half of the content will be published for the first time, while the rest is previously released works from literary magazines, according to the publisher. Two poems — "North-Facing Room" and "Meditation on Pain" — originally featured in last year's autumn issue of Moonji's Literature and Society journal, will also be included. "This is a book through which readers can enter the author's quiet inner world, or the world of a quiet first-person perspective," a Moonji of

Apr 17, 2025By Yonhap

Han Kang to release first book since Nobel win

INTERVIEW Bora Chung shows us what sci-fi with its fists raised looks like

An AI-powered elevator harbors an unrequited love for an apartment resident it ferries up and down each day. It hides secrets in its coded database, pines in tender silence and serenades her with a 1941 poem by a Polish resistance fighter — its language so achingly sensuous, “it feels like gold and silver melting into verse” (“A Song for Sleep”). Elsewhere, at a high-tech research institute, a low-level employee battles cosmic bureaucracy to plan a flashy gala, only to be swept into a crime she didn’t commit. But she can’t be fired. Not now, not ever (“The Center for Immortality Research”). Welcome to “Your Utopia” — another wonderfully bizarre collection of short stories from Bora Chung, the acclaimed Korean author of “Cursed Bunny.” Deftly rendered into English by Anton Hur, the collection, like its International Booker Prize- and National Book Award-nominated predecessor, traverses a landscape where the uncanny meets droll humor and tenderness lurks in the unlikeliest places. The eight featured stories leap across fantastical worlds — from space cannibal

Apr 16, 2025By Park Han-sol

[INTERVIEW] Bora Chung shows us what sci-fi with its fists raised looks like

K-LIT REVIEW Bora Chung's 'Your Utopia' offers the breath-giving sci-fi we needed

As a university student, I needed a third-year art elective. Another science major had told me about a class that was popular among our cohort — a comparative literature course with a focus on science fiction. I needed no further convincing. I was already a fan of science fiction, and the course taught me new tools to enjoy and understand it further. The reading list was a great introduction to new works and authors, including Philip K. Dick, who I now count among my favorite authors. "Your Utopia" by Bora Chung is a collection of eight short stories. Its nomination for the Philip K. Dick Award — one of the "Big 3" science fiction awards, along with the Nebula and Hugo awards — seems appropriate, as Dick was himself a prolific short story writer. It was the first Korean nomination for the award — fitting, since breaking new ground is something Chung does very well. Truly impressive science fiction requires a willingness to break down the barriers between the present and future, not just in technology but in perception, culture and experience. "Your Utopia" impresses with its u

Apr 16, 2025By Arlo Matisz

[K-LIT REVIEW] Bora Chung's 'Your Utopia' offers the breath-giving sci-fi we needed

Forgotten bosses: Women entrepreneurs in Korea's postwar economy

The Korean War forced Lim Hyung-seon and her young daughter to flee Seoul for Busan — a harrowing journey marked by poverty and despair. As she struggled to care for her sick child and survive the war’s economic fallout, Lim even considered suicide. However, amid the chaos, Lim found an unexpected opportunity. She had hairstyling skills she had honed over the years — skills few women possessed at the time. "After just three months of work, I managed to buy a shanty house in Yongdusan (a region in Busan), with two rooms and a kitchen," Lim recalled. "I had arrived with nothing. Even professors were working the docks then, so for a beauty salon owner to afford a home in that area — that was extraordinary." With millions of men drafted to the front lines, countless women stepped into the workforce to support their families in a country left impoverished by the war. In 1953, just after the armistice, Korea’s per capita gross national income was only $67. Kim Mee-sun, a research professor at Ewha Womans University’s Korean Women’s Institute, tries to offer a different lens throu

Apr 12, 2025By Lee Yeon-woo

Forgotten bosses: Women entrepreneurs in Korea's postwar economy

K-LIT REVIEW Cheon Seon-ran's 'A Thousand Blues' explores human robot connection in near future

Imagine walking into your part-time convenience store job to find you’ve been replaced by Betty, a cutting-edge robot worker unfazed by long hours or rude "ajeossis" (middle-aged men). When you visit the convenience store a few months later, the robot is already past its prime, dented from bored teenage boys repeatedly kicking it as hard as they can. This is the world explored in "A Thousand Blues," the 2020 science fiction novel from Cheon Seon-ran, now available in a new English translation by Chi-young Kim. "A Thousand Blues" is set in 2035, just 10 years from now, in a Korea that is in many ways recognizable as our own. The story centers on Yeonjae, a teenage robotics enthusiast, and her sister Eunhye, an animal lover who uses a wheelchair. When not helping out at their mother’s "samgyetang" (ginseng chicken soup) restaurant, the girls like to spend time at the racetrack. This is where they meet Coli, a robot jockey who has been damaged and slated for destruction. When they learn that Today, their favorite racehorse, is due to be sent to the knacker’s yard, they hatch a plan

Apr 1, 2025By John A. Riley

[K-LIT REVIEW] Cheon Seon-ran's 'A Thousand Blues' explores human robot connection in near future

Korea stages its biggest showcase at Bologna Children’s Book Fair

The Korean pavilion at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy will be staged on its biggest scale yet. Now in its 62nd edition, the Bologna event, running from Monday to Thursday, remains the world’s largest international book fair and trade show dedicated to children’s literature. The Korean pavilion, organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea, will bring together 40 domestic publishers alongside a diverse lineup of authors. A special “Authors from Korea” section is set to feature 69 original illustrations and standout titles from 15 Korean picture book creators. Among them, Kim Dong-soo (“To Do List”), Luly (“They Never Made It to Bremen”), Bamco (“Prepping Anchovies”), Seo Hyun (“Rice Cake House of a Tiger”) and Ahn Kyoung-mi (“Masked Nights”) will engage with readers on-site through book talks and signing sessions. Also in the spotlight are other acclaimed works and writers — Lee Geum-yi, a nominee for the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award; “If You Want to Eat a Red Ap

Mar 31, 2025By Park Han-sol

Korea stages its biggest showcase at Bologna Children’s Book Fair

'Molly Makes a Mess' offers Frankenstein tale for children

Daniel Daugherty has created a monster. His first children's book, "Molly Makes a Mess" tells the tale of Molly, a girl who is brash, brainy and messy. She attempts to deal with her messy bedroom by creating her own monster. And this tale goes disastrously wrong, all told in rhyming quatrains. "This book is a Frankenstein story for kids," Daugherty, an American resident of Jeju Island, told The Korea Times. "It's about creating a 'monster' with the best of intentions in mind. It's about solving a problem that didn't really exist in the first place and, in so doing, causing a new set of problems. Did I mention it's just a silly rhyming poem? It's just a silly rhyming poem." Molly's age is left ambiguous, although the author said the book is aimed at second and third grade English speakers who aren't afraid of encountering new vocabulary. Daugherty self-published the book after running a successful crowdfunding campaign last year. The book is available for purchase online. The book's titular character, Molly is a formidable figure — despite her laziness — and the kind of person who wou

Mar 19, 2025By Jon Dunbar

'Molly Makes a Mess' offers Frankenstein tale for children

Reading 'Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982' in London

Participants of Korean Book Reading Day discuss Cho Nam-joo's novel "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982" at the Korean Cultural Center UK (KCCUK) in London, Tuesday. The reading event is part of a new initiative by the KCCUK aimed at encouraging the exploration of Korean literature in its original language. The program selects two Korean books annually, with participants meeting on the first Tuesday afternoon of each month for discussions. Cho's acclaimed novel, centered around the life of a young woman born in late 20th-century Korea, addresses themes of systemic misogyny and institutional oppression that resonate globally. Courtesy of KCCUK

Mar 12, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo

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