Interview with Kim Sa-in President of LTI Korea

“The 'Korean Wave' of literature has just begun.”
 
So said President Kim Sa-in of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI) as he talked about the growing number of Korean literary works that are winning international awards, during an interview on Aug. 9 at the LTI library in Seoul.
 
Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian” (채식주의자), the 2016 winner of the Man Booker International Prize, and Hwang Sok-yong’s “At Dusk” (해질 무렵), the 2018 winner of the Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature, are just beginning to show the popularity of Korean literature outside of Korea.
 
Jeong Yoo-jeong’s “The Good Son” (종의 기원) was introduced in the U.S. on NBC's Tonight Show by the host, Jimmy Fallon, as a must-read of the summer, on June 5. Kim Un-su signed a six-figure contract with U.S. publisher Doubleday for his thriller “The Plotters” (설계자들). Germany’s weekly magazine Der Spiegel compared Han Kang’s “Human Acts” with works by Franz Kafka.
 
Korea.net sat down with President Kim, the “top literary diplomat” of the country, to hear more about this new boom in Korean literature.
 
Reporter : Min Yea-Ji
Director : Jeon Han
Director of Photography : Kim Sunjoo
Editor : Choi Taesoon