“About Marriage: the 357-day honeymoon” is a collection of writings by a Christian couple who went on a 357-day-long honeymoon to places like Yanbian, Cambodia and India. Like Japanese female writer Kaori Ekuni’s famous novel “Between Calm and Passion-Rosso,” “About Marriage” comes in two separate books, one written by the wife, Lee Sa-rang, and the other by the husband, Chung Chae-hun. Very dif...

Han So-jin’s “In Praise of Death” seems equipped with the enticing elements of a best-seller: a femme-fatale artist misunderstood by her generation and a tragic affair with a married man. Unfortunately, whether the novel lives up to its potential is as elusive as the unfulfilled love story. “In Praise of Death” by Han So-jin (Hainiam) Yun Sim-deok (1897-1926) was Korea’s first soprano and an ea...

“Instead of imitating another nation, the Swedes made an unrivaled achievement of their own -- creating a strong society for the people.”

Publishers choose the books to put out on bookstore shelves, hoping that some will buy and perhaps read them. Yet, many of them go unnoticed among the countless books that are released every day. This is much more the case with translated materials. The odds are very low that an American would read Korean literature. Ira Silverberg looks for information in a book during an interview with The Ko...

Kim Jong-gil passed away in 2017 at the age of 92. He was professor emeritus at the Korea University English literature department, and in the 1990s we met and discussed translation of poetry from Korean into English. He encouraged me to translate not only the message, but also rhythm. It was not an easy task. “A Black Kite” (LTI Korea Library) He gently persuaded me to try harder. He was my s...

Author of ‘White Chrysanthemum’ talks about debut novel on victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery

South Korean novelist Han Kang, the 2016 winner of the Man Booker International Prize, has been shortlisted for the British literary award of world authority, the organizer said Thursday (British local time). Han's "The White Book" is among the six finalists for the 2018 Man Booker prize. The 2015 winner, Laszlo Krasznahorkai from Hungary, also made the list. "The White Book" was translated by ...

Literary translator and professor Kim Wook-dong asserted in his recently published article that the English version of the novel “The Vegetarian” has a significant number of mistranslations. In his article published online on March 30, Kim wrote that “The Vegetarian,” a winning novel of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, contains many more mistranslations than what “one would expect from a...

Lee Sung-nack, a board member at the Kansong Art and Culture Foundation, has released a new book that attempts to explain how portraits created in the Joseon era depicted their models in a realistic way. Lee, 80, worked as a dermatologist and professor before he got a Ph.D. in art history at Myongji University in 2014. Cover of "Joseon Dynasty Portraits: Expression of Scholar Spirits" (Yonhap) ...

‘When people ask whether I am liberal or conservative, I tell them that I am an artist,’ said Muhn Baum-gong, also known as BG Muhn, an artist and professor at Georgetown University, during a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday to promote his latest publication “Pyongyang Art: The Uncovering the Complex Layers of Chosonhwa.” Dispelling any possible suspicions concerning his ideological orient...

South Korean novelist Han Kang, who won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, has again been longlisted for the British literary award of world authority. Han's "The White Book" was among the 13 contenders picked from 108 entries for the 2018 prize, according to the announcement on the organizer's website Monday (British local time). It was translated by Deborah Smith, who was a joint rec...

Poet Choi Young-mi, who revealed her experience of being groped by an unnamed senior poet through her poem, on Monday reaffirmed sexual harassment allegations made against renowned poet Ko Un, who recently denied the allegations. In a statement uploaded on Facebook on Sunday, Choi said, “The statements related to the poem ‘Monster’ are facts. I will reveal the details further, when there is an o...

Choi Jung-wha, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, has released “Global Etiquette,” a book that offers suggestions on etiquette to observe in various circumstances. Through the book, Choi, the founder and president of the Corea Image Communications Institute, provides basic guidelines of proper etiquette while also offering English language expressions that readers can easily us...

“North Korea is a monster beyond the concepts ‘Leviathan’ termed by English political scientist Thomas Hobbes, and ‘Maschine’ termed by Weber.”

Korean poet Ko Un was contemplative at the launching ceremony of the Maninbo Library, Tuesday, where his old study was recreated and officially opened to the public. The Maninbo Library is situated at Seoul Archival Services, on the third floor of the Seoul Metropolitan Library. Ko Un (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald) Ko Un at the Maninbo Library (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald) The Maninbo Li...