Seoul Int'l Writers' Festival to present lineup of global literary heavyweights

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Seoul Int'l Writers' Festival to present lineup of global literary heavyweights

Posted : 2022-09-18 16:41

Updated : 2022-09-19 15:53

Kwak Hyo-hwan, president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), speaks during a press conference for the upcoming Seoul International Writers' Festival held in central Seoul, Sept. 14. Courtesy of LTI Korea

Authors, translators and critics to discuss role of literature in post-pandemic era

By Park Han-sol

An official poster for the 11th Seoul International Writers' Festival, scheduled to run from Sept. 23 to 30 / Courtesy of LTI Korea

A number of global literary heavyweights who have won awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, Hugo Award and the National Book Award, among other prestigious accolades, will land in Korea for the upcoming Seoul International Writers' Festival (SIWF).

First launched in 2006 as a platform for fruitful literary exchanges between Korean and international authors and readers, SIWF will make its return as an in-person event for the first time in three years following the pandemic-induced online transition.

Under the theme of "Beyond Narrative," the festival, running from Sept. 23 to 30, will span three different venues in the city: Seoul Community Cultural Center Seogyo in Mapo District, Community House Masil in central Seoul and Incheon International Airport.

"This year's theme is more than going beyond the 'narrative' in the narrow sense. It's also about transcending the barriers posed by literary genres and languages as well as geographical borders," Kwak Hyo-hwan, president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), said during a recent press conference in central Seoul, Sept. 14.

Jointly hosted by LTI Korea and Incheon International Airport Corp., the eight-day event will accordingly invite 35 recognized writers from nine countries, as well as translators and critics to discuss the essential role of literature in the post-pandemic future.

The festival will open on Friday afternoon at the Seoul Community Cultural Center Seogyo with keynote speeches made by two celebrated figures: poet Kim Hye-soon, who made headlines in 2019 as the first Asian female winner of the International Griffin Poetry Prize for her "Autobiography of Death," and Pulitzer-winning American novelist, essayist and poet Forrest Gander.

Six one-on-one talk sessions between Korean and international writers will take place throughout the event.

Novelist Kim Un-su, whose translated crime thriller, "The Plotters," was hailed in the Anglophone literary market, will discuss the ever-growing definition of what constitutes compelling narrative with Indian author Megha Majumdar, whose debut novel, "A Burning," became a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Award nominee.

Another session between author Kang Hwa-gil, known as a trailblazer of women-led thriller novels in Korea, and Sayaka Murata, a Japanese writer whose "Convenience Store Woman" earned her the Akutagawa Prize in 2016, will investigate the theme of gender and womanhood.

Meanwhile, the Writers in Conversation program will invite up to four authors for each of its six sessions to cover a wide range of topics ― climate and environment, history, language, national identity, social marginalization and feminism.

The participants include Naomi Kritzer, an American speculative fiction writer whose 2015 short story, "Cat Pictures Please," won both the Hugo Award and the Locus Award, and Wu Ming-yi, who became the first Taiwanese novelist to be nominated for the International Booker Prize in 2018 for "The Stolen Bicycle."

One of the festival's notable programs is called "A Writer's Room," organized with an aim to examine the participating authors' literary works shoulder to shoulder with their translations.

One session invites poet Kim Hye-soon and Don Mee Choi, a Korean American poet and translator who was responsible for masterfully turning Kim's renowned "Autobiography of Death" into English.

Other additional cultural programs will be sprinkled throughout the week to celebrate the 11th edition of the festival. These include authors' public multilingual reading sessions as well as shows and artistic performances inspired by the literary works of participating writers.

"While SIWF began in 2006 as a platform to bring to the forefront the voices of new-generation writers, with the global ascent of Korean culture, we hope to establish the event as the country's representative stage to invite and recognize world-renowned authors," Wu Chan-je, head of the festival's organizing committee, said.

hansolp@koreatimes.co.kr