[Winner Announcement] Book for You Event

We thank everybody that participated in our Book for You Event. Congratulations to all the winners! [List of Winners] woodru*****@gmail.computrifirdaus*****@gmail.comviridiana.bautis*****@gmail.comhadj*****@gmail.comca*****@nodmakerspace.ro   * The last 5 characters of the email address have been replaced with ***** to protect the winners’ personal information.   ※ Disclaimer - Winners will be personally contacted through the email address provided. - Please note that the winner is responsible for any additional taxes or deductions that may apply.

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[Event] Share your story and we'll prescribe the BOOK FOR YOU (~Aug. 4th)

Share your story with us at the following link: https://forms.gle/yHqmuHFGBHmC2SuU6

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[Winner Announcement] What's Your Pick?

We thank everybody that participated in our What's Your Pick Event. Congratulations to all the winners! [List of Winners] farid*****@gmail.comkami.li*****@gmail.comkarimda*****@gmail.comsummer*****@gmail.comjimu*****@gmail.comnatashazgra*****@gmail.comviridiana.bautis*****@gmail.comtortuganinjavi*****@gmail.com0613chi*****@gmail.comgr*****@naver.com   * The last 5 characters of the email address have been replaced with ***** to protect the winners’ personal information.   ※ Disclaimer - Winners will be personally contacted through the email address provided. - Please note that the winner is responsible for any additional taxes or deductions that may apply.

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[Event] What's Your Pick? (~July 6th)

Click here to particiate >> https://forms.gle/G6kVUW6vLMrKeJTs7

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We're Cutting Back on Print

Starting with the 2022 summer issue, the paper distribution of KLN magazine will be limited primarily to universities, libraries, and cultural institutions. But fear not! You can still enjoy all of our content here at kln.or.kr. Bookmark this website and remember to visitu us regularly and follow us on our social media to stay in the loop about new content and upcoming issues. Twitter: www.twitter.com/@KoreanLitNow Instagram: www.instagram.com/KoreanLitNow Facebook: www.facebook.com/KoreanLitNow

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Website Renewal Feedback Event(~Dec. 27th)

We're asking for your feedback for our new website: www.kln.or.kr Click here and let us know what you think about it. 10 people with the most constructive feedback will be awarded $20 Amazon gift cards.

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[Foreword] Korean Literature: In Terms of Space

In this issue of KLN, we will be looking at Korean literature through the perspective of space. For as much as Seoul—the nation’s capital and its cultural epicenter—is seen as the main stage of Korean literature, the extent to which the space of Seoul is featured in K-lit is rather excessive. For far too long, the non-urban provinces of Korea have only remained significant in their relation to cities. Within Korean literature, the provinces were largely historicized, and therefore, antediluvian.  Recently, the gap between cities and provinces has grown. Depopulation is wiping out entire towns, while cities are increasingly burgeoning. Meanwhile, the satellite towns that encircle the bigger metropolitan cities are being relegated to second-class status. The cities themselves operate against a hierarchy, with the gap between cities becoming reorganized as the gap between Seoul and the provinces. Globally, we are witnessing geographical integration and restructuring of entire populations that are driven by the forces of capital and economic efficiency, with the trend also exacerbating the spatial hierarchy within Korea. What does Korean literature have to say regarding these regions that are either being sealed as geographical time capsules containing traces of the nation’s history, or seen as suppliers of necessary resources for the metropolitan regions, or indulged in as oases of consumption and leisure away from the pollution and waste of the big cities?  The more recent works in Korean literature give due focus to the sense of place of the local provinces while also shedding new literary light on these territories. The works of Bak Solmay, our issue’s featured writer, are a case in point. Bak’s fiction reflects on the concept of time in the cities, of how the distance between cities and provinces is represented in the distance between the past and present. It portrays characters who cannot be shoved into a particular category of citizenship, e.g., a witness to an era-defining event in history; rather, Bak’s fiction is more interested in the people going about their contemporary lives in the local provinces and those nomadic wanderers who cross fluidly between the categories of habitation and migration.  In the Special Section, readers can experience Gwangju as an everyday humdrum borough and less as the site of conscientious disobedience and shrine of democracy that witnessed the deaths of countless people to the brutal state-sponsored massacre on May 18, 1980. Readers will also be introduced to the neo-scape of “techno-valleys” and the new corporate culture that sprang forth from IT complexes that are not necessarily specific to any municipal distinction but rather share a particular sense of place. The Section also features an excerpt that details how an ongoing labor protest against management and its ensuing failure can disrupt and demobilize many lives. Through these works that seek to cross over the multiple hierarchies in our living spaces, we may discover a newfound diversity in Korean literature, which will ultimately fuel diversity in Korean society.   So Young-hyun KLN Editorial Board Member   Translated by Amber Hyun Jung Kim

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[Foreword] A Time for Recovery (or in Anticipation Thereof)

Not long ago, I received an email from Jane Neilson, instructor at the Open House Senior Center in El Cerrito, California, with whom I had become good friends during my time at UC Berkeley when I took part in the Daesan-Berkeley Writer-in-Residence program. We exchanged New Year’s greetings and updated each other about our lives as we recalled the more memorable events of the past year. In one of her subsequent emails, Jane told me about a conversation she had with the owner of a seafood shop she frequented. Her takeaway from the conversation was that, even in the midst of the pandemic-induced isolation and confinement that characterized all of last year, we humans somehow managed to survive, demonstrating tremendous resilience. Reading her words, I thought how much of a relief that would be if it were true. In that spirit, we bring you KLN’s first issue of 2021 in the hopes of shedding the pain of last year. In this spring issue, we feature a Special Section on disasters, with particular emphasis on stories by young authors that offer a glimpse into the disaster narratives found throughout Korean literature. The critic Lee Eun-ji discusses the fiction of Pyun Hye-young, Choi Eunmi, and Yun Ko-eun. Lee’s understanding of disasters as cascading, domino-like chain reactions rather than as sudden, out-of-the-blue events is timely and appropriate. In our Featured Writer section, poet Emily Jungmin Yoon interviews Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, author of the graphic novel Grass and recipient of the Harvey Award, recognized as the comics industry’s equivalent of an Academy Award. Translated by Janet Hong, Grass is a story about a woman forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. Our other featured writer for this issue is Choi Jin-young. She is interviewed by Soje, who translated her novel, To the Warm Horizon. The conversation offers an intimate look into the life and work of Choi, a prolific author who attracts many contemporary readers. Our Inkstone series focusing on classical Korean literature heads into its second season with two new essays on the traditional music of pansori and the concept of deities in Korean folklore. The Bookmark section features a short story by Park Seolyeon. Park’s characteristically buoyant, enthusiastic tone provides a telling peek into the future of Korean literature. After all is said and done, what’s certain is that we readers of KLN and devotees of Korean literature are connected in spirit through our love of literature and language.I hope that today’s trying time passes soon, so that we may all embrace a time of recovery.   Kang Young-sook Writer, KLN Editorial Advisor   Translated by Amber Hyun Jung Kim

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[Foreword] It’s Ok Even If You’re Not an Adult

I remember standing in front of a world classics series in the school library every day, my heart pounding as I agonized over what to read first. Inside these books, the world was boundless, filled with unfamiliar places, people, and experiences. From our childhood, we’ve grown up both imagining the world and experiencing it vicariously through our reading material. Our reading experiences have formed us, and the texts we’re reading now will form who we are in the future. In this issue’s Special Section, we introduce Korean literature from the perspective of young adults. In the past, many Korean books featured adults’ idealized vision of young people, but recently there has been a trend towards greater awareness of affirming young adults as they are. More of this kind of fiction is finding a devoted readership made up of readers of all ages, and it is my hope that through this issue, we might share this literature with readers worldwide. We will be meeting Featured Writers Yoon Sung-hee and Kim Bo-Young, and feeling the power of future-oriented writing in interviews with them. Yoon Sung-hee compares writing a story to the act of rolling snowballs to make a snowman. In her interview, we may discover where she gets the humor that gives her the strength to endure and overcome sorrow. Kim Bo-Young is a writer who has raised the bar for Korean science fiction. An unfettered imagination and a critical mind that questions what is deemed normal are some of the components of her fiction. Also, through a discussion of the terms gagaek and nobi in our Inkstone section, we will be able to look at traditional singing culture and the Joseon class structure through a contemporary lens. In the Bookmark section, we introduce a story by Lee Yuri, who displays a lively and sensuous imagination. Finally, in Reviews, we offer honest impressions of Korean lit as relayed from many regions around the world, and I recommend them for your perusal. Autumn is now approaching in Korea. The insects sing their fall chorus at night. Soon the leaves will turn color and the skies will appear higher. We hope that this peaceful sense of autumn in Korea is conveyed everywhere this issue is delivered.   Kim Mi Jung KLN Editorial Board Member   Translated by  Kari Schenk

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[Foreword] To (Be Made to) See Bounda To (Be Made to) See Bounda To (Be Made to) See Bounda

[Foreword] To (Be Made to) See Bounda To (Be Made to) See Bounda To (Be Made to) See Bounda

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