I was lucky enough to attend the 37th (?) Swedish Literary Society meeting at the Foreign Press Club. This was a notable event because it brought internationally famous Korean poet Ko Un (here is his biography by Brother Anthony), back to the event (He also kicked off the series many years ago). The Swedish Ambassador…
Last Saturday Ko Un spoke at the Barry’s Seoul ABC Book Club (also here on Facebook) at Haechi Hall in Myeongdong, Seoul. Ko began by wishing everyone a happy New Year and looked forward to the Lunar New Year, which is upcoming and mentioned TS Eliot about endings being beginning. January links our past with…
The BBC has produced a 25 minute audio-documentary on Korean Poet Ko Un called Ko Un: The People’s Poet of Korea. The documentary includes a plummy-voiced BBC announcer, lightly plucked gayageum, both Korean and English versions of Ko’s poetry, and commentary from a variety of sources who kind of sum Ko up as “embodying” South…
Of course Haruki Murakami is the favorite, and his winning would likely inspire some local gnashing of teeth.^^ The Guardian quotes the Ladbroke odds: After years of hovering in the wings, this could be Haruki Murakami’s year to clinch the Nobel prize for literature – at least if you go by the odds offered by…
The Korea Herald reported, a few days ago, that the Dalkey Archive Press and LTI Korea were about to finalize a list of 25 books to be translated from Korean and simultaneously published in English, beginning with a list of eight authors. A joint project with Korea Literature Translation Institute, the series will consist of…