Cover South Korean writers such as Cheon Myeong-kwan, Shin Kyung-sook and Sang Young Park have been nominated for prestigious literary awards (Photo: courtesy of Europe Editions / W&N Editions / Black Cat)
South Korean writers such as Cheon Myeong-kwan, Shin Kyung-sook and Sang Young Park have been nominated for prestigious literary awards (Photo: courtesy of Europe Editions / W&N Editions / Black Cat)
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Cheon Myeong-kwan, Han Kang and Bora Chung are just some of the country’s authors who are being recognised at the world stage, be it the International Booker Prize or the Dublin Literary Award
The enthusiasm for South Korean authors is reflected in the books shortlisted for several internationally renowned literary prizes, reports The Korea Times. Cheon Myeong-kwan was one of six finalists for the 2023 International Booker Prize with Whale (2003), a novel about the intersecting lives of three characters in a remote village in South Korea. The jury, chaired by French writer Leïla Slimani, praised the originality of the plot, adding that it is “a book to be swallowed by and to live inside for a while”.
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This is the third time that a South Korean author has been shortlisted for this prestigious British literary prize, as The Korea Times points out. Before Cheon, Han Kang and Bora Chung have featured among the six Booker Prize finalists. Han was selected in 2016 for The Vegetarian (2007), and in 2018 for The White Book (2016), while Chung’s Cursed Bunny (2017) was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.
The nomination of South Korean writers for the International Booker Prize shows that the Asian country’s literature is thriving abroad. And this is a boon for publishers. For example, the English translation of Whale was published in the UK in January and in the USA in May. Cheon’s novel has also been published in German, Russian, Japanese and Turkish. Another of his books from 2015, Modern Family, will likely meet a similar destiny in the coming months.
Among the South Korean writers recently shortlisted for major literary awards is Sang Young Park, whose book Love in the Big City (2021) was one of 70 long-listed for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award. This novel, which follows the trials and tribulations of a young man named Young in Seoul, was also long-listed for the International Booker Prize in 2022.
Meanwhile, writer Shin Kyung-sook features among the finalists for the Firecracker Awards with Violets (2022), a novel that was already acclaimed by the jury of the National Book Critics Circle Awards in 2022. Her compatriots Kim Ae-ran and Jeong Yi-hyun have been nominated in the Foreign Literature category of the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award, recognising the best fictional works translated into Russian.
150 books translated from Korean
While these literary distinctions are often little known to the general public, they do provide their winners with media exposure, which often translates into book sales.
For instance, Shin has seen huge success in bookshops since the release of Please Look After Mom in 2008. Winner of the coveted Man Asian Literary Prize, this novel about the complexities of motherhood has sold over two million copies in South Korea. Its appearance on The New York Times bestsellers list helped it cross borders, and it is now published in some 20 countries, according to the American newspaper.
Despite this, Korean literature is still struggling to export as well as English, French or Spanish literature. Some 150 Korean literary works were published in 27 different languages in 2022, according to The Korea Times, based on figures from LTI Korea (Literature Translation Institute of Korea). In comparison, translation rights for 16,878 French works were assigned in 2021, according to the French Publishers Association (Syndicat national de l’édition).
But Korean publishing professionals remain confident that literature from the country will shine on the world stage. “The hard work of Korean authors and dedication of translators give Korean literature a growing universal appeal,” an LTI Korea representative told The Korea Times.
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