“A little too fluent”—South China Morning Post

I am a writer and translator working in Seoul. I was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and raised in British Hong Kong, Ethiopia, and Thailand, but mostly in Korea, where I’ve lived for thirty years. I was awarded the title of Person of Distinguished Service to the Nation after serving in the Korean Army.

Writing

• The Great White Canceling
• Fictional Notes toward an Essay in Translation
• Missing
• Was (poem)
• How to Write Queer Korean Lit: A Manual
• The Emerging Literary Translator Valley of Death
• From the Translator: A Lunar Sorority
• Making Pitches Work in Literary Translation
• On writing:
  1. On silence
  2. On exile
  3. On cunning
• 24 March 2020

Book translations

• Counterweight by Djuna (Pantheon, 2023)
• I Went to See My Father by Kyung-Sook Shin (Astra House, 2023)
• I Want to Die but I Also Want to Eat Tteokpokki by Baek Se Hee (Bloomsbury UK/US, 2022)
• Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Feminist Press, 2022)
• Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong (Moonji Books, 2021)
• Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park (Grove, Tilted Axis, 2021)
• Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung (Honford Star, 2021)
• The Prisoner by Hwang Sok-yong (Verso, Penguin Random House US, 2021)
• The Underground Village by Kang Kyeong-ae (Honford Star, 2018)
• The Court Dancer by Kyung-Sook Shin (Pegasus Books, 2018)

Book chapters

• What Does It Mean to Decolonise Translation?: “The Mythical English Reader” (Tilted Axis, 2022)
• International LGBTQ+ Literature for Children and Young Adults: “Boys Who Wear Dresses: Queer Narrative Strategies in Korean Children’s Literature” (Anthem, 2021)
• The Valancourt Book of World Horror Vol. 2: “Masks” by Bora Chung (Valancourt, 2021)

Other translations

• Samovar : “The Head” by Bora Chung
• Words Without Borders : “Genesis” by Jeon Sam-hye, “The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta” by Sang Young Park, “About My Daughter” by Kim Hye-jin, guest editor for 2019 feature on queer Korean literature
• The Guardian : Kyung-Sook Shin for “Seven novelists from around the world living with the pandemic”
• Asymptote Journal : “Aficionados” by Jung Young Su
• The Offing : “The Embodiment” by Bora Chung
• Chogwa: “The Snail” by Jin Eun-Young and others
• Modern Poetry in Translation : Chogwa revisions issue
• Anomaly : “A Spell to Invoke the White Dolphin” by Jeon Sam-hye
• Columbia Journal : “Nights in Lebanon” by Jung Young Su
• Westerly Magazine : Poetry by Shim Bo-seon and others
• Slice Magazine : Exquisite corpse project by Jeon Sam-hye
• Queen Mob’s Tea House : “The Joy of Music” by Jung Young Su
• Korean Literature Now : Poetry by Kim Un and others

Interviews

• Shondaland
• Forbes: Part I, Part II
• Prism magazine
• Litro magazine
• KBS World Radio Korea 24 (audio)
• National Centre for Writing Podcast (with Jeremy Tiang)
• Books & Bao: Meet the Translator
• Arts Council Korea, Music of the Sentences (Korean): Part 1, Part 2
• EBS Morning Date: Part 1, Part 2
• Korean Literature Now interview (with Sang Young Park)
• Matthew Sciarappa’s YouTube channel
• Electric Literature
• LTI Korea YouTube Channel (Korean with English subtitles)

Grants and Awards

• PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant (2020)
• PEN Translates award (2017)
• Daesan Foundation literary translation grant (2017)
• GKL Korean Literature Translation Award (2018)
• Multiple grants from the Literary Translation Institute of Korea
• Multiple grants from the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea
• Multiple grants from Arts Council Korea
• Translator-in-residence at the National Centre for Writing, UK
• Translator-in-residence at Queen’s College Translation Exchange, University of Oxford

Taught at

• Catapult
• Yonsei University Department of Korean Language and Literature
• Literary Translation Institute of Korea
• Ewha University Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation
• Seoul National University College English Program

Education

• MA (English), Seoul National University (under Dr. Nancy Jiwon Cho)
• LLB, Korea University College of Law
• BA (Psychology), Korea University
• BA (French), Korea National Open University

Other

• Member of the Author’s Guild (US)
• Member of the Translators’ Association of the Society of Authors (UK)
• Manages Korean literary translation group Smoking Tigers
• Korean literature critic on KBS World Radio’s Korea 24
• Korean literature critic on TBS eFM’s The Bookend (2015-2017)

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