Non-fiction
Art by Kangwook Lee

Inside Issue 30

The Spring 2016 issue of the Asia Literary Review is a celebration of contemporary Korean literature from the country's most exciting young writers. It also includes an essay by Deborah Smith, translator of Han Kang's The Vegetarian, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.

For a taste of what's in this issue, read part of Cheon Myeong-kwan's My Uncle Bruce Lee, where a group of village boys see the world through their obsession with Asia's Kung-fu hero. Follow that with an extract from Kim Ae-ran's The Youngest Parents with the Oldest Child: teenage parents struggle to cope as their child's accelerated growth makes him an old man at the age they were when he was born.

There's also startling new poetry from Kim Kyung Ju and Min-jeong Kim, and much more on Issue 30 in our Editorial.

Free-to-view articles and extracts are hyperlinked above and below. To read the full articles and the rest of this issue, take out an eBook or joint Print+eBook subscription - and we'll deliver four issues right to your door anywhere in the world.

Single copies are also available on our website in print and eBook editions, and in bookshops in Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and elsewhere.

 

Fiction   

My Uncle Bruce Lee 

Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated by Susanna Soojung Lim 

 

from The Youngest Parents with the Oldest Child

Ae-ran Kim, translated by Chi-Young Kim 

 

from ButterFlyBook

Apple Kim, translated by Sunny Jeong 

 

Speeding Past 

Han Yujoo, translated by Janet Hong 

 

Snowman 

Seo Yoo-mi, translated by Soyoung Kim 

 

Wang’s Whole-Chicken Stew 

Kim Yi-seol, translated by Eun Kyung DuBois and Nathan A. DuBois 

 

from Seven Cat's Eyes

Choi Jae-hoon, translated by Yoonna Cho 

 

Children in the Air 

Kim Seong Joong, translated by Stella Kim 

 

Wonderboy 

Kim Yeonsu, translated by Sora Kim-Russell 

 

 
Essay 

Korean Literature Comes of Age

Deborah Smith 

 
Poetry   

Heavy Snow, a Rented House, a Letter 

Kim Kyung Ju, translated by Jake Levine 

 

The House Where Someone Was Born 

Kim Kyung Ju, translated by Jake Levine 

 

Synopsis for the Theremin 

Kim Kyung Ju, translated byJake Levine 

 

Finale 

Min-jeong Kim, translated by Won-Chung Kim 

 

To Red: A Declaration 

Min-jeong Kim, translated by Won-Chung Kim

 

Cover Art 

Front cover: detail from 'Untitled-15019', 2015,   by Kangwook Lee (Arario Gallery)

Back cover: 'ROK Passport on Blueprint', 2016,  by Jesse Chun

 

 


To read the rest of Issue 30, visit our eShop to take out a subscription or buy a print or digital copy.


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