THE KOREA SOCIETY

is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) organization with individual and corporate members that is dedicated solely to the promotion of greater awareness, understanding, and cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea. Learn more about us here.

Literature

FLAWLESS

Tuesday, May 23, 2023 | 6:30 PM
Seoul, South Korea makes Beverly Hills look like a one-stoplight town when it comes to the beauty rat race, and it’s getting more intense every year. Elise Hu spent four years in South Korea as NPR’s bureau chief, and during her tenure there, the K-beauty industry tripled to become a $10 billion industry. South Korea is home to more than 7,500 cosmetic and skincare manufacturers, and K-beauty has staked its… Read More
Han Kang’s Booker Prize-winning 2016 novel The Vegetarian solidified her place as a master of the surreal, and is a powerful reminder that what makes surrealist narratives so haunting is the way they illuminate concerns that are real and urgent. Han, one of South Korea’s leading literary voices, joins the Pen America's World Voices Festival for the North American launch of her new novel, Greek Lessons. Following a female protagonist… Read More

Kyung-Sook Shin with Jenny Wang Medina

Thursday, April 13, 2023 | 6:30 PM
Author photo © Jun-yeon Kim An instant bestseller in Korea and the follow up to the international bestseller, Please Look After Mom, I Went to See My Father by Kyung-Sook Shin centers on a woman’s efforts to reconnect with her aging father, uncovering long-held family secrets. More than just the portrait of a single man, I Went to See My Father opens a window onto humankind, family, loss, and war.… Read More

Gina Chung: Sea Change

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | 6:30 PM
A novel about a woman tossed overboard by heartbreak and loss, who has to find her way back to stable shores with the help of a giant Pacific octopus. Author photo by S. M. Sukardi One of "22 Works of Fiction to Read This Spring"—The New York Times A novel about a woman tossed overboard by heartbreak and loss, who has to find her way back to stable shores with… Read More
Join us for an in-person event with award-winning author, Patricia Park, for the release of her debut YA novel, Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim Alejandra Verónica Kim doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. At her wealthy Manhattan high school, her super Spanish name and super Korean face do not compute to her mostly white classmates and teachers. In her Jackson Heights neighborhood, she’s not Latinx enough. Even… Read More

Heinz Insu Fenkl - Skull Water

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 | 6:30 PM
SKULL WATER is the story of Insu, the son of a Korean mother and a GI father in the U.S. Army, and the intertwined tale of his Korean Big Uncle “The novel in your hands is something I never knew I'd see, born from things at least two governments hoped to hide. A mixed German Korean boy in 1970s Korea undertakes a quest to save the living with what the… Read More

A Very Asian Guide to Korean Food

Tuesday, January 24, 2023 | 6:00 PM
Introduce children to Asian cuisine and the #VERYASIAN movement! Written by Michelle Li, A Very Asian Guide to Korean Food introduces young readers to classic and modern Korean dishes and provides fun facts about the foods and culture of Korea. Michelle Li is an award-winning, veteran journalist and co-founder of the Very Asian Foundation. She started a global movement of unity with the viral hashtag #veryasian after she received a… Read More

Bong Joon Ho: Dissident Cinema with Karen Han

Tuesday, January 17, 2023 | 6:00 PM
Bong Joon Ho: Dissident Cinema by culture writer and screenwriter Karen Han is the first definitive critical and visual survey of the Academy Award–winning South Korean writer/director who has been making critically acclaimed feature films for more than two decades. Bong Joon Ho: Dissident Cinema by culture writer and screenwriter Karen Han is the first definitive critical and visual survey of the Academy Award–winning South Korean writer/director who has been… Read More

Author Talks: Bora Chung

Tuesday, December 6, 2022 | 5:00 PM
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and the winner of a PEN/Heim Grant, Cursed Bunny is the wildly original debut story collection from Bora Chung “Whether borrowing from fable, folktale, speculative fiction, science fiction, or horror, Chung’s stories corkscrew toward devastating conclusions—bleak, yes, but also wise and honest about the nightmares of contemporary life.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and the winner of a… Read More

New Narratives in Korea: Baek Sehee

Wednesday, November 9, 2022 | 5:00 PM
Part memoir, part self-help book, and completely engrossing, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee is a book that captures the edgy relationship many millennials and Gen Z-ers have with hopelessness, hunger, and the pressure to be perfect. A runaway bestseller in Korea where her readers include RM of BTS, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is newly translated into… Read More
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