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56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Poetry Grand Prize winner Sooj Heo

As a visual artist based in Germany, Sooj Heo, the Grand Prize winner in the poetry category, is a devoted poetry lover who discovered the beauty of language and translation while rendering Korean poems for her friends who couldn't read the language. “I wanted to share the ones I loved with friends who could not read Korean, so I used Google Translate’s camera feature. The mistranslations fascinated me — how words slip, meanings deform and reassemble. That curiosity led me to start translating myself, to see if I could bring the poem’s voice across with more care and clarity,” she recalled. Heo is especially drawn to Korean women poets born in the 1950s and '60s, with Kim Eon-hee (1953-), Choi Seung-ja (1952-), Kim Hye-soon (1955-) and Yi Yeon-ju (1953-92) among her favorites. “Their poems carry the suppressed tension of living as talented women in a patriarchal culture, which I find powerful and haunting,” the winner said. Asked what motivated her to select Pak Seo-won’s poems, Heo said it happened by chance. “I was looking for poems with the same intensity and discover

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Grand Prize winner Sooj Heo

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Commendation Award winner Adelle Wee Xing Min

Among the five winners of the 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, Adelle Wee Xing Min stands out for her singular focus and dedication to literary translation. A Singaporean student at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea’s (LTI Korea) Translation Academy in Seoul, Wee is an aspiring literary translator. Before entering the academy, she earned her master’s degree in Korean-English translation from Ewha Womans University, following an undergraduate degree in linguistics. Her dream of becoming a literary translator began modestly through fan translation work in the K-pop community. “I actually started out doing fansubs and translating social media posts for an idol group I really liked,” Wee recalled. “There were only a couple of fan translators because the fan base was really small, and fans would have to wait hours and sometimes days before they could read an accurate English translation. So I started subtitling and translating their content to try to shorten the wait time and bridge the gap between non-Korean-speaking fans and the idols they loved so muc

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Fiction Commendation Award winner Adelle Wee Xing Min

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Kevin O’Rourke Prize winner Peace Lee

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,

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Kevin O’Rourke Prize winner Peace Lee

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Judges' report

The Korea Times' 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards entries continue to mirror the booming interest in Korean literature and growing community of passionate, capable translators. Some clear trends in fiction included LGBTQ stories, dystopian themes and fiction inspired by K-pop. Poetry also showed a wide range, from the short and aphoristic to longer forms grounded in contemporary everyday life. Translators are finding writing that is meaningful to them and successfully communicating that to future readers. Given the growing diversity among the texts chosen for translation, our discussion turned to the question of what it means to choose one type of text over another. Should the winning entries be somehow representative, and if so, of what? Should they primarily entertain and read smoothly in English? There were excellent translations that grabbed our attention only to feel more superficial or less challenging than others. Other entries presented steep translation challenges that weren’t fully met in English. For poetry, there were noticeable differences in difficulty le

Nov 4, 2025By Sora Kim-Russell, Krys Lee and Janet Poole
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Judges' report

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Fiction Grand Prize winner Diana Akhmetova

The Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards organized by The Korea Times have long been exclusive to those who speak Korean or English natively — sometimes both. This year, however, the winner broke that mold. Born in Russia, Diana Akhmetova’s mother tongues are Tatar, the language of the Tatar ethnic group, and Russian. She began learning English at the age of 6 and Korean at 14. Now residing in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, she studies tourism management at Kongju National University. Akhmetova said she was drawn to Kim Ji-yeon’s novel "The Things that Go By" because of its focus on nontraditional relationships. “What drew me to 'The Things that Go By' were the themes it explores. Nontraditional relationships are still considered taboo by many, which often silences the real struggles faced by those who don’t fit into conventional norms,” she said. The story follows the love between two women. “This story addresses issues of self-acceptance, the search for one’s place in the world, the process of letting go of the past and the courage it takes to trust another pe

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Fiction Grand Prize winner Diana Akhmetova

56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Poetry Commendation Award winner Ketevani Barbakadze

Born in Georgia, Ketevani Barbakadze, winner of this year's Commendation Prize in poetry section, grew up an avid reader and writer with a deep interest in translation. “Whenever I read a translated poem that moved me, I would wonder: How would this line feel in the breath of its own language? How much of the poet’s sincerity was conveyed, and how much remained behind? Not because the translator did a poor job, but because every language expresses emotion in its own unique way — and something is always lost in crossing from one to another,” she said. As a child, she was also fascinated by the mythologies of different cultures — a curiosity that eventually led her to discover Korea and the rich shamanic traditions of Jeju Island. “In school, our world history curriculum placed a strong emphasis on Greek mythology but offered almost nothing about East Asian traditions,” she recalled. “As part of a freshman project for my world history course, I decided to explore that missing half of the world’s imagination. That search led me to Jeju Island and its mythology — a place

Nov 4, 2025By Kim Se-jeong
[56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Poetry Commendation Award winner Ketevani Barbakadze

PHOTO K-Book Festival in London

Korean writer Cheon Seon-ran, center, speaks during a book talk hosted by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) at Foyles on Charing Cross Road in London, Saturday (local time). Known for her sci-fi novels "A Thousand Blues" and "The Midnight Shift," Cheon discussed the inspiration behind her works, explaining how she "revisited what it means to be human through the concept of a robot with emotions." The event was part of K-Book Festival, held at the downtown London bookstore to celebrate Korean storytelling ranging from award-winning fiction to webtoons. Courtesy of KCCUK

Nov 3, 2025By Kwon Mee-yoo
[PHOTO] K-Book Festival in London

Winners of 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards

The Korea Times is delighted to announce the winners of its 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards. As one of the longest-running honors dedicated to Korean literary translation, the awards celebrate the skill, passion and commitment of translators working to bring Korean literature to readers around the world. Amid a record number of submissions this year, the Grand Prize in fiction, awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, goes to Diana Akhmetova from Russia for her translation of novelist Kim Ji-yeon’s “The Things that Go By.” The Grand Prize for poetry is given to Sooj Heo from Korea for her translation of poet Pak Seo-won’s poems including "Calling 1." The Commendation Award winner for fiction goes to Adelle Wee Xing Min from Singapore for her translation of Choi Hee-ra's novel “Aeon." The Commendation Award winner for poetry is presented to Ketevani Barbakadze from Georgia for her translation of poems by Park So-ran, including “Words Close to the Heart.” The Kevin O'Rourke Prize is awarded to Peace Lee from the U.S. for her translation of novel

Nov 1, 2025
Winners of 56th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards

Han Kang honored in Jangheung County literary events

A series of literary events celebrating the first anniversary of novelist Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature will continue across Jangheung County, South Jeolla Province, through the end of this year. According to Jangheung County, Tuesday, the events are intended to reflect on the meaning of the Korean author’s historic achievement and to cement Jangheung’s identity as an area with a rich literary lineage. The Swedish Academy announced Han as the 2024 Nobel laureate in literature on Oct. 10 last year, recognizing her “lyrical prose that intertwines fragility and human endurance.” The festivities began on Oct. 18 with the “Nobel Literature City Borimsa Bijarim Music Festival,” held at Borim Temple. From Oct. 24 to 25, a “Book Camp” is scheduled at Papillon Zip, a cultural complex housed in a remodeled former prison, where about 60 middle school students and writers will engage in literary workshops and creative writing sessions. Additional festivities will take place from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 along the Tamjin River, including the “Literature Forest” program and the

Oct 21, 2025By Jung Min-ho
Han Kang honored in Jangheung County literary events

Tributes pour in after death of Baek Se-hee, voice behind 'I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki'

A wave of condolences and tributes continues to pour in following the death of Baek Se-hee, the bestselling author whose resonant memoir “I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki” gave voice to the everyday struggles of mental health. She was 35. Her death on Thursday was confirmed the next day by the Korea Organ Donation Agency. Though the agency did not disclose the cause, it noted that Baek gave life to five others through organ donation. Published in 2018, “I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki” struck a deep chord in Korea for its candid conversations about mental health — still a taboo subject for many in the country. Through intimate dialogues with her therapist, Baek chronicled her battle with dysthymia, a chronic form of depression, as well as her pursuit to find meaning in the small, ordinary joys that coexist with sorrow. Her words of vulnerability transcended borders. The book has since been translated in 25 countries and sold over a million copies worldwide. Its sequel, “I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki,” delved even deeper into the writ

Oct 21, 2025By Park Han-sol
Tributes pour in after death of Baek Se-hee, voice behind 'I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki'
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