Korean Short Stories for Foreigners

This is Intern Doria Garms-Sotelo from the USA reporting from THE AsiaN.

A local publisher has released the first batch of renowned Korean short stories in both Korean and English in a bilingual series.

Asia Publishers released the first 15 books in the local market Wednesday. Readers will soon be able to buy them on Amazon.com as well.

The first set includes works by established writers such as Oh Jung-hee’s “Chinatown,” Choe Yun’s “The Last of Hanak’o,” Jo Jung-rae’s “The Land of the Vanished,” Hwang Sok-young’s “The Road to Sampo” and Shin Kyung-sook’s “The Place Where the Harmonium Stood.” Each volume is about 130 pages and costs 6,000 won.

The short stories were chosen because they properly reflect Korea’s turbulent modern history that includes war, division, industrialization and democratization.

The publisher said it will release 35 more titles in the second half of the year.

The series will be used for Korean studies classes at Harvard University, Columbia University and University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

More info is available at theasian.asia.

news@theasian.asia