Literature
Angie Kim: Happiness Falls with Susan Choi
Friday, September 8, 2023 | 6:00 PM
“I read Happiness Falls in a single day. I can’t remember a book with more layers—this is a nuanced story about bias, language, ableism, racism, and family dynamics—but above all else this is a story with so many twists and turns I was riveted through the last page.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they…
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Dress History of Korea
Thursday, July 13, 2023 | 6:00 PM
Bringing together a wealth of primary sources and with contributions from leading experts, Dress History of Korea presents the most recent approaches to the interpretation of dress and fashion of Korea. Through close analysis of visual, written, and material sources—some newly excavated or recently re-discovered in global museums—the book reveals how dress and adornment evolved from the period of state formation to the modern era. As in other cultures, modern…
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Author Talks: Cheon Myeong-kwan
Tuesday, June 27, 2023 | 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 Whale is a rollercoaster adventure through Korean history and culture, a magical and grotesque epic...The plot twists and turns and hurtles along in a way that makes you pleasantly dizzy; the imagery and language in the book are also so rich, with the innocence and…
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Make Break Remix: The Rise of K-style with Fiona Bae
Thursday, May 25, 2023 | 6:30 PM
K-pop, K-fashion, K-drama, K-beauty: over the past decade, K-style has exploded onto the global scene. What is behind this phenomenon? Where does K-style go from here? In Make, Break, Remix: The Rise of K-style, author and communications consultant Fiona Bae makes no attempt to define or categorize the movement, instead celebrating the eclectic and multifaceted nature of K-style and its home city of Seoul. Photo by less_TAEKYUN KIM K-pop, K-fashion,…
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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…
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Greek Lessons: Han Kang In Conversation with Katie Kitamura
Friday, May 12, 2023 | 8:00 PM
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…
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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.…
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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…
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The Korea Society & The Strand Present: Patricia Park
Friday, February 24, 2023 | 7:00 PM
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…
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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…
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