Building a Bridge Between Korean Writers and International Readers

_list: Books from Korea, published by the Literature Translation Instituteof Korea (LTI Korea) since 2008, has played the first violin in introducingKorean books abroad. Every issue has contained almost 150 titles includingfiction, nonfiction, and children’s books, which means that _list hasintroduced nearly 3,600 Korean books to the world over the last six years.Thanks to such efforts, Korean children’s books and nonfiction have beenincreasing in popularity throughout Asia, including China, Taiwan, Thailand,and Indonesia. Moreover, book readings for Korean writers have beenpopping up all over Europe and North America. In April this year, Koreaparticipated in the London Book Fair as the Market Focus country 2014.This was a favorable opportunity to expand Korea’s reputation within theinternational literary community. Ten Korean writers including Hwang Sokyong, Yi Mun-yol, Lee Seung-U, Kim Insuk, Shin Kyung-sook, Kim Youngha, Han Kang, Kim Hyesoon, Hwang Sun-mi, and Yoon Tae-ho took part in various culturalprograms and seminars that directly targeted to international readers.As international readers become increasingly familiar with Korean writers, _listundertakes the editorial mission of providing them with a window to view a broad range ofcontemporary Korean literature. With judicious selection and accord, we continue to devotespecial features on specific topics, genres, and individual authors. By putting Korean writerson the world stage, and at the same time highlighting similarities and contrasts among them,we aim to assist international readers in understanding and drawing a topographic map ofKorean literature._list is devoting Volumes 24 and 25 to the theme of “diaspora” with stories about thosewho live different lives in distant lands, far away from their homeland. In the first half ofthe 20th century, the Korean diaspora was driven out and confined to Russia, China, Japan,and the US under unavoidable circumstances beginning with Japanese colonialism (1910-1945). Then, in the second half of the century voluntary emigration powered by a desirefor economic, professional, and educational opportunities in the Americas, Australia, NewZealand, Western Europe, and Southeast Asia propelled hundreds of thousands abroad.Today, over seven million Koreans are living in 170 countries. In Volume 24 under this specialtheme, _list observes the varied lives of uprooted characters in Korean literature, then involume 25, writers from the Korean diaspora themselves will share their works.The featured writer for this volume of _list is Bok Geo-il, an early luminary of sciencefiction in Korea. It is with honor and pleasure that we present an excerpt from his latestautobiographical novel, A Day in the Life of a Man Who Worries About Trivial Things as aProfession, written while he was fighting cancer. In our digital edition, readers can watch himplay the harmonica and baduk (go) as well as hear him read from his latest work.In order to survive and thrive as a literary magazine in this digital age, we keep inmind how best to communicate with our international readers. For more useful, timelybi-directional communication, we plan to rebuild our website (www.list.or.kr) and iPadapplication by September. Only through recognizing and embodying the diverse needs of ourgreater reading audience, can _list build a bridge between Korean writers and internationalreaders.We invite you to join in building that bridge together. 

by Park Jangyuneditor-in-chief, _list: Books from Korea