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“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

Book translations

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, 2021)
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
Cordite : “Was” (poem)

Interviews

Shondaland
Prism magazine
KBS World Radio Korea24 (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

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

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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