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Jung Bora (left)’s ‘Cursed Bunny’ and Park Sang-yeon (LTI Korea)’s ‘Love in the Big City’ |
Korean literature has achieved great recognition on the world stage in 2022.
Translated literary works have won or been nominated for prestigious international literary awards this year, with a total of four awards and nine nominations. According to the Korean Literature Translation Institute on Wednesday, they were recognized in various genres, including novels, poetry, and graphic novels.
Jeong Bora’s “Cursed Bunny” and Park Sang-yeon’s “Love in the Big City” (both translated by Anton Haar) were selected for the International Booker Prize shortlist and longlist, respectively. Following the nominations, the two authors’ work has been translated into many languages. According to LTI Korea, applications for translation support for the works of the two authors have also doubled since last year.
After Kim Hye-jin’s About My Daughter was nominated in France for the Émile Guimet Award for Asian Literature, her novel was published in several European countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and Romania. .
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Japanese translation of Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s graphic novel “The Waiting” (left) and Sohn Won-pyung’s “30 Strikes Back” (LTI Korea) |
In Japan, the Japanese version of best-selling author Song Won-pyong’s Counterattack at 30 won the annual grand prize in the translated novel category sponsored by Japanese bookstores in April. In 2020, he won the award for “Almond”.
Kang Shin-ja’s translation of Kim So-yeon’s poetry collection “One-letter Dictionary” won the Grand Prize for Japanese Translation.
In the Czech Republic, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s local translation of the graphic novel “Grass” was named Best Translation at the country’s annual Muriel Awards for Best Comic Book. Her other work, The Waiting, was nominated for the prestigious Harvey Award in the Best International Book category.
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(From left) Lee Young-joo’s ‘Cold Candy’, Lee Seo-ho’s ‘Cat Call’, Lee Hye-mi’s ‘Unexpected Vanilla’ |
The Lucien Strike Asian Translation Award, sponsored by the American Literary Translators Association to recognize the importance of Asian translation in international literature, was awarded to poet Lee Young-ju’s “Cold Candy” in October.
Poets Lee Seo Ho’s “Catcalling” and Lee Hae Mi’s “Unexpected Vanilla” were nominated for the Sarah Maguire Translated Poetry Award and the PEN American Literature Award, respectively.
Korean literature translated and published overseas is diversifying into different genres, from sci-fi to fantasy to mystery.
According to LTI Korea, more than 150 works have been published abroad in 27 languages with the support of the center. Works by well-established authors such as Jung Yoo-jung, Kim Young-ha, Han Kang, Kim Ae-rang, and Jang Kang-myung, as well as works by relatively new authors in the sci-fi and fantasy genres such as Kim Cho-yup, according to LTI Korea. , Bae Myung-hoon, and Lee Mi-ae were popular candidates for translation.
There was also a notable tendency for works by Korean authors to be published overseas within a year or two. For example, Lee Miye’s fantasy novel “Dream Department Store in Dolgat” (2020) will be translated into Russian in 2021. German, Turkish and Vietnamese in 2022.
Overseas publishers that have never published Korean literature are introducing the works of Korean authors. This number is 20% higher than before and will be 64 publishers by 2022.
Dong-hee Hwang (hwangdh@heraldcorp.com)
