Lifestyle - The Korea Times

InterviewIrish author Danielle McLaughlin on exchange with Korean students and compelling visit to Jeju

When Irish writer Danielle McLaughlin received an invitation to visit Korea, she was deep into Nobel laureaute author Han Kang’s “We Do Not Part” (2021), a novel whose reckoning with the Jeju April 3 massacre had unsettled and moved her. The timing felt like an invitation within an invitation. “The minute I was invited, I knew I wanted to go,” she said during an interview with The Korea Times after leading a creating writing workshop at Korea University on Monday. The Cork-based author, known for the award-winning short-story collection “Dinosaurs on Other Planets” (2015) and the novel “The Art of Falling,” (2021) visited Seoul as part of the Irish Embassy’s inititive to bring contemporary Irish writers to Korea. The embassy began its exchange program in 2024 with the help of Dublin City Libraries, the public-library network run by Dublin City Council. At Korea University on Monday, more than 50 students — many encountering McLaughlin’s work for the first time — packed into a classroom for a two-hour creative writing workshop. The room’s enthusiasm was striking.

Sep 16, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

Irish author Danielle McLaughlin on exchange with Korean students and compelling visit to Jeju

Plan for literary translation graduate school delayed over regional development policy

A plan by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) to establish an independent graduate school dedicated to Korean literary translation in Seoul has been delayed as it went against the government's initiative for "balanced regional development." The institution is now reviewing an interim master's program with a national university outside Seoul while continuing to pursue the longer-term goal of a standalone facility. The state-run institute under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has long operated a translation academy that has nurtured translators who bring Korean literature to wider international audiences. Its key limitation, however, has been that the program falls outside the official degree education system. To address that, the institute planned to open an independent graduate school in Seoul in September 2027. Those plans have since been revised, according to government officials and other sources, and it is now in talks with regional universities to launch a master's degree program as an interim step instead. “As a transitional measure, we have rev

Sep 14, 2026By Jung Min-ho

Plan for literary translation graduate school delayed over regional development policy

LTI Korea chief bets on human translators despite rapid AI development

InterviewHow a London-based author is redefining kimchi

When Jihyun “Kimmy” Kim reflects on her childhood in Korea, her mind lands on the everyday rhythm of a family dining table. “There would be rice, my mother’s doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) or miyeokguk (seaweed soup), and kimchi would always be there. As a child, I hardly noticed it because it was so normal," she recalled during a recent interview with The Korea Times. Growing up in Korea, kimchi was simply part of everyday life — always present, rarely discussed and taken entirely for granted. Yet when Kim relocated to the United Kingdom in 2008 following her marriage, that quiet background fixture suddenly became a lens through which she viewed her distance from home. “I never really planned to start a kimchi business. It happened quite naturally after living in the U.K. ... In a way, I had to leave Korea to really appreciate something that had always been part of my life.” Kimchi misconceptions Living abroad exposed a striking disconnect between the cultural institution Kim knew and the way Western diners understood it. Overseas, kimchi was frequently reduced to a t

Sep 14, 2026By Park Jin-hai

How a London-based author is redefining kimchi

Korea kicks off 10-day literature festival with global writer lineup

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will hold the 2026 Korea Literature Festival, aimed at spreading literature's value for social connection and emotional healing, from Friday to Sept. 20. The event, in partnership with the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, Arts Council Korea, the Korea Publishing Culture Industry Promotion Agency, the National Museum of Korean Literature and the International PEN Korea Center, will be held in Seoul's Daehangno district and other venues nationwide. Now in its second year, the festival also aims to to build a literary ecosystem linking writers, readers and local communities. Actress Go Ah-sung is serving as the festival's honorary ambassador. The Seoul International Writers' Festival, one of several events under the festival's umbrella, opens Friday at Ara Art Center in Insa-dong with a conversation between Korean novelist Kim Ae-ran, known for the novel "My Brilliant Life," and Chilean author Benjamin Labatut, a finalist for the 2021 International Booker Prize. Ten additional writers from eight countries, including South African Booker

Sep 10, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan

Korea kicks off 10-day literature festival with global writer lineup

Korean writers, publishers head to Paris for 'K-Book Week' event

Korean storytelling is finding a new frontier in Europe, moving past screen and stage to build a commercial presence in print. Leveraging the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France, cultural officials in Paris are launching "K-Book Week" — a strategic initiative aimed at converting the continent’s growing appetite for Korean storytelling into concrete international publishing rights. Centered at Galerie Joseph in Paris's Le Marais district through Sept. 18, the two-week program organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism signals a fundamental transformation in how global publishing consumes Korean media. Where international readers once sought translated fiction almost exclusively through boutique academic presses, the current craze is powered by cross-media narrative engines like web novels, award-winning picture books, graphic fantasy and speculative fiction explicitly engineered for television and film adaptations. This commercial pivot builds on years of critical momentum. Since Han Kang made history as the first Asian woman to win the Nob

Sep 7, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan

Korean writers, publishers head to Paris for 'K-Book Week' event

New York fair connects Korean publishers with American readers

A new push to bring Korean literature and webtoons into the U.S. mainstream is set to land in Manhattan this week. Hosted at the NYC Seminar & Conference Center on Wednesday and Thursday, the "Outreach New York Book Fair" directly connects Korean publishers with major U.S. buyers, paving the way for "K-books" to capture the lucrative North American market. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea, a state-run body that supports the publishing industry, have organized similar outreach fairs in three to five countries annually since 2015, holding one-on-one export meetings between Korean publishers and local buyers. Last year's edition, held in five countries, produced 1,045 consultations and about $17.66 million in export results. Last year's New York leg alone generated 252 meetings worth more than $7.5 million. This year's fairs will also visit Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and Italy. In New York, 15 Korean publishers, including Dasan Books, will meet 40 U.S. publishing houses, agencies and imprints, among them Penguin Random House,

Sep 2, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan

New York fair connects Korean publishers with American readers

How running changed Kian84's battle with panic disorder

More than a decade ago, one of the many diet trends to capture public attention was the so-called paleo diet. The basic idea was to eat plenty of meat, fat and vegetables while sharply reducing bread, grains and dairy products. Its premise was that many human diseases emerged after the transition to settled agricultural life, and that people would therefore be healthier if they returned to something closer to the diet of their hunter-gatherer ancestors. Grains and dairy products that became abundant after the rise of agriculture were pushed aside in favor of meat and vegetables — although, of course, no one was suggesting a return to the brutal struggle for survival, hunger after failed hunts or the shorter life spans of prehistoric humans. "The Perfect Primitive," a book published in March by popular YouTuber Ja Chung, whose online name is short for "self-made young man" in Korean, builds on a similar idea. The book has gone through more than 14 printings since its release. Like many books written by prominent YouTubers, its greatest strength lies in packaging a range of existing inf

Aug 29, 2026By Hankookilbo

How running changed Kian84's battle with panic disorder

K-LIT REVIEW Minyoung Kang's 'Plant Lady' gets comfortable with 'cozy horror'

A lush plant shop tucked away in an unassuming residential neighborhood; a lone woman snipping and pruning, enveloped by leaves and shoots she cares for with motherly tenderness; a small cast of ordinary characters each bearing issues the resolution of which promised happy endings; and lastly, the must-have feature — some cats. "Plant Lady" by Minyoung Kang has all the essential ingredients of a typical cozy read. If you disregard the murders, that is. My advice for this book is to skip the blurb. Do not read it at all. This is coming from someone who sorely regrets scrutinizing the blurb from start to finish before diving into the book. Had I ignored the synopsis of events, the preposterous juxtaposition of a soothing neighborhood plant shop and the gruesome plot that unfolds in it would have been 10 times more impactful. Instead, this book is best approached from the following angles: feminine rage, cozy horror and a fast-paced plot that takes no prisoners. Start with feminine rage. In her author’s note, Kang explained that she had read too many books in which unnamed women died

Aug 29, 2026By Faye Leung

[K-LIT REVIEW] Minyoung Kang's 'Plant Lady' gets comfortable with 'cozy horror'

AI can translate words, but doesn't bear responsibility, experts say

Translators must defend their role not by competing with artificial intelligence (AI) on speed, but by taking responsibility for the cultural and ethical choices embedded in their work, experts said Friday at a conference on literary translation organized by the Literature Translation Institute (LTI) Korea. The International Translators' Summit brought together Lee Sang-bin, a professor of English interpretation and translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies; Korean American literary translator and poet Stine An; and novelist-translator Moon Ji-hyuk. The discussion wasn't about whether AI can produce fluent translation. Instead, the panelists focused on who should bear responsibility for a translation, how translators should use AI and what kind of work must remain human-led. Lee argued that translation is not simply the transfer of meaning from one language to another. “I want to say that translation is not the work of copying meaning, but an act of responding to the words of the other,” the professor said, adding that a translator can never completely know an author or sou

Aug 28, 2026By Lee Hae-rin

AI can translate words, but doesn't bear responsibility, experts say

Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch, author Danielle McLaughlin to visit Seoul in September

The Embassy of Ireland in Seoul will host Booker Prize-winning novelist Paul Lynch and short-story writer Danielle McLaughlin in September, marking Lynch's first visit to Korea, the embassy said. Lynch, author of "Prophet Song," which won the 2023 Booker Prize — Britain's leading literary award for English-language fiction — will hold a public conversation with readers on Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. at Daesan Hall in Seoul's Gwanghwamun area. The talk, titled "Imagination That Awakens Reality," will explore how literature reflects real-world events and how imagination can offer new ways of understanding the present. "Prophet Song" follows an ordinary family in a fictional Ireland gripped by totalitarian rule, using their experience to examine the spread of authoritarianism, loss of freedom, displacement and human dignity. The novel won international acclaim for its realism and dystopian imagination, alongside the 2023 Booker Prize and the 2024 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. McLaughlin, author of the short-story collection "Dinosaurs on Other Planets," will give a lecture and creative-writing wo

Aug 28, 2026By Jhoo Dong-chan

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