Literature
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Greek Lessons: Han Kang In Conversation with Katie Kitamura
Friday, May 12, 2023 | 8:00 PMHan 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 who loses her voice and seeks out learning Greek as a possible remedy, the... Read More -
Kyung-Sook Shin with Jenny Wang Medina
Thursday, April 13, 2023 | 6:30 PM- Youtube Video:
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. With this long-awaited follow-up to Please Look After Mom—flawlessly rendered by award-winning translator... Read More -
Gina Chung: Sea Change
Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | 6:30 PM- Youtube Video:
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 the help of a giant Pacific octopus. Sea Change is an "absolutely stunning debut" novel —Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face—by Gina Chung. Ro is... Read More -
The Korea Society & The Strand Present: Patricia Park
Friday, February 24, 2023 | 7:00 PMJoin 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 at home, Ale feels unwelcome. And things at home have only gotten worse... Read More -
Heinz Insu Fenkl - Skull Water
Tuesday, February 7, 2023 | 6:30 PM- Youtube Video:
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 dead might know, and he tells us stories across time of this almost-vanished world, and the lives of those thrown away by Korean society and American military... Read More -
A Very Asian Guide to Korean Food
Tuesday, January 24, 2023 | 6:00 PM- Youtube Video:
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 racist voicemail in response to her sharing on-air the Korean foods she... Read More -
Bong Joon Ho: Dissident Cinema with Karen Han
Tuesday, January 17, 2023 | 6:00 PM- Youtube Video:
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 making critically acclaimed feature films for more... Read More -
Author Talks: Bora Chung
Tuesday, December 6, 2022 | 5:00 PM- Youtube Video:
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 PEN/Heim Grant, Cursed... Read More -
New Narratives in Korea: Baek Sehee
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 | 5:00 PM- Youtube Video:
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 English by International Booker Prize shortlisted translator Anton Hur. Baek Sehee is a successful young social media... Read More -
A Conversation with Su Cho
Tuesday, October 11, 2022 | 6:00 PM- Youtube Video:
How do our stories transform as they are passed down to each generation? Prize-winning poet Su Cho explores the legacies of language and lore in her unforgettable debut collection, The Symmetry of Fish. Selected by Space Struck author Paige Lewis for the National Poetry Series, these poems trace the narratives and phrases of a Korean American immigrant family with absorbing tenderness and curiosity. Cho threads stories of food and folktales through her meditations on joy, grief, friendship, faith, and... Read More