Who are some well-known modern Korean writers whose works have been translated into English?

The Korean writer most represented in terms of languages is Yi Mun-yol, with over 50 works translated into a total of 16 different languages, according to a report released by the Korean Literature Translation Institute at the end of 2008. 48 works by the poet Ko Un have appeared in 15 languages, while translations of 37 books by Hwang Sok-yong have been published in 11 languages.



Yi Mun-yol (1948~) is a novelist and short story writer. He published his first novella Saehagok in 1979. One of Yi's major novels available for international readers is Hail to the Emperor!, which was translated into English in 1986. A work of historical fiction, the book was praised by literary critic Kim Hyun as "a novel that will be remembered for a long time by the Korean literary world." Kim also called it "Yi's most outstanding work."

Ko Un (1933~), a Buddhist monk-turned-poet and pro-democracy activist, is regarded as the most internationally renowned Korean poet. Ko joined a monastic order in 1952. For the following 10 years before he left the order, he traveled around the country, immersing himself in self-discipline and spiritual cultivation, and began to write poetry during that period. It was not until the mid-1970s, however, that Ko emerged from the nihilism and self-hatred that affected his early poems and transformed himself into a passionate voice against social injustices. In works such as Going to Munui Village, Climbing a Mountain, andEarly Morning Road, Ko tackled contemporary political issues from the division of Korea to the abuses of the military dictatorship, and expressed a fierce determination to overcome Korea's tragic history. A prolific author of more than 130 volumes of poetry, essays and fiction, Ko's poetry has been translated into languages including Swedish, German, French and Japanese. He was first nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005. Several of Ko's works have been translated into English. They include The Sound of My Waves: Selected Poems by Ko Un (1993), Beyond Self: 108 Korean Zen Poems (1997), Traveler Maps (2004), and Ten Thousands Lives (2005).

Since publishing his first short story in 1962 while still a high school student, Hwang Sok-yong (1943~) has lived as a writer in direct engagement with life, witnessing the tumultuous events of modern Korean history firsthand and drawing artistic inspiration from his own experience as a vagabond day laborer, a student activist, a Vietnam War veteran, a coal-miners' and garment workers' advocate and a political dissident. He was especially affected by his visit to North Korea in 1989, in direct violation of South Korea's National Security Law. From short stories such as The Chronicle of a Man Named Han and The Road to Sampo to a multi-volume saga, Hwang has produced works of unique verbal energy and unparalleled wit that entertain as well as instruct. Two of Hwang's major works can be read in English: The Shadow of Arms, published via the Cornell University East Asia Program in 1994, and The Guest, published by Seven Stories in New York in 2006.

Source: Korea Lierature Translation Institute