The Korea Times Modern Literature Translation Awards

BOOK REVIEW | Robin Ha's graphic novel 'The Fox Maidens' offers fierce tale of gumiho

"The Fox Maidens" is an inspired take on one of the most subversive themes in East Asian folktales: that of the female cooptation of the male body in a patriarchal society.

K-LIT REVIEW | Reality TV becomes reality in Soyoung Park's sci-fi YA novel 'Snowglobe'

"Snowglobe," written by Soyoung Park and translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort, is a sci-fi YA novel about uncovering the secrets of a climate-controlled city called Snowglobe. It was originally published in Korean in 2020.

No win for 'Your Utopia' at Philip K. Dick Award, but Bora Chung still makes history

Bora Chung’s short story collection “Your Utopia,” translated by Anton Hur, did not take home this year’s Philip K. Dick Award.

INTERVIEW | Bora Chung shows us what sci-fi with its fists raised looks like

An AI-powered elevator harbors an unrequited love for an apartment resident it ferries up and down each day. It hides secrets in its coded database, pines in tender silence and serenades her with a 1941 poem by a Polish resistance fighter — its language so achingly sensuous, “it feels like gold and silver melting into verse” (“A Song for Sleep”).

K-LIT REVIEW | Bora Chung's 'Your Utopia' offers the breath-giving sci-fi we needed

As a university student, I needed a third-year art elective. Another science major had told me about a class that was popular among our cohort — a comparative literature course with a focus on science fiction. I needed no further convincing.

K-LIT REVIEW | Cheon Seon-ran's 'A Thousand Blues' explores human robot connection in near future

Imagine walking into your part-time convenience store job to find you’ve been replaced by Betty, a cutting-edge robot worker unfazed by long hours or rude "ajeossis" (middle-aged men).

Literature meets art at this year's Korea Times Translation Awards ceremony

The Korean pavilion at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy will be staged on its biggest scale yet.

Now in its 62nd edition, the Bologna event, running from Monday to Thursday, remains the world’s largest international book fair and trade show dedicated to children’s literature.

K-LIT REVIEW | June Hur's 'A Crane Among Wolves' takes young adults on journey to past

The current decade has witnessed a renewed blossoming of literary works by Korean American and, increasingly, Korean Canadian writers. Prominent among the fiction of these writers are novels targeting a young adult (high school and up) and juvenile (middle school and up) readership.

'If You Want to Eat a Red Apple' becomes 1st Korean winner of BolognaRagazzi Opera Prima Award

The South Korean picture book "If you Want to Eat a Red Apple" has won a prestigious BolognaRagazzi Award for debut works, the award's website showed Friday, making it the first recipient of the highest honor in the category.

Celebrating Korean cuisine through picture books

For many Korean children, the careful rolling of "gimbap" (seaweed rice roll) or the aroma of sizzling kimchi pancakes isn’t just about food — it is a love language passed down through generations.

K-LIT REVIEW | Han Kang offers ambitious, heartwarming story in 'We Do Not Part'

Since Han Kang’s Nobel Prize win was announced in October, discussion of her and her work has been everywhere in Korea and internationally. While she was still involved in its day-to-day running, the bookshop she co-ran with her son was swamped with fans, and many curious new readers found themselves challenged by her lyrical and often enigmatic writing.

K-LIT REVIEW | Cho Nam-joo's 'Saha' tackles a familiar dystopia

The purpose of dystopian literature is not to speculate about the future but to warn, and not to see beyond the present but to criticize it.