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South Korea

shadow on concrete wall
Photo by Plato Terentev on Pexels.
By Any Other Name
By Kim Heejin
After surviving a fatal accident, a young woman with OCD has repeated encounters with a shadowlike presence in Kim Heejin’s “By Any Other Name.”
Translated from Korean by Paige Aniyah Morris
brown and black mold spots
Photo by Andrew Small on Unsplash.
The Brightest World I Knew
By Lim Sol-A
In a world where housing lotteries dictate destinies and mold grows faster than hope, a woman finds herself calculating the cost of survival—not in money, but in silence, compromise, and quiet defiance.
Translated from Korean by Clare Richards
MultimediaMultilingual
A robotic hand emerges from the bottom of the image against a blue background.
Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels..
A Small Extinction: Part 2
By Bora Chung
Two sisters square off in a confrontation about parenthood and essential humanity in the second part of this futuristic tale by Bora Chung.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
A black-and-white photo of a transparent mannequin.
Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels..
A Small Extinction: Part 1
By Bora Chung
When a new mother makes a drastic, life-changing decision, her horrified sister tries to intervene in this futuristic tale by Bora Chung.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
A portrait of writer and translator Anton Hur on the left, and a photo of the cover of his book...
“Making Space for Each Other”: Anton Hur on Toward Eternity, Translation, and Immortality
By Mandana Chaffa
Mandana Chaffa uses the otherworldly premise of Anton Hur’s novel Toward Eternity as a springboard to discuss Hur’s path to translation, community, and immortality.
A tile graphic of the twelve books featured in the list
The Best Books We Read in 2024—And What We’re Looking Forward to in 2025
By Words Without Borders
WWB staff members on their favorite translated books of the year and the 2025 titles they're most excited about.
The covers of the six books featured in the Watchlist in a 2 x 3 grid: Clean, The Light That Burns...
The Watchlist: October 2024
By Tobias Carroll
Stuck in a reading slump? Check out Tobias Carroll's recommendations of six new books of fiction, poetry, and graphic lit to read now, translated from Greek, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and more.
A subtle spiderweb pattern on a greenish-gray background
Sidewall - sample. Gift of Dorwin L. Starr. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Public domain.
Story—Late Summer or Early Fall
By Yoo Heekyung
The spider is hiding, why don’t you try touching the spiderweb
Translated from Korean by Stine An
MultimediaMultilingual
The covers of the six books featured in the Watchlist in a 2x3 grid: Where We Stand, Mammoth, Mina's...
The Watchlist: August 2024
By Tobias Carroll
In this special #WITMonth edition of the Watchlist, Tobias Carroll recommends poetry from Tunisia, unsettling fiction from Japan, feminist nonfiction from Brazil, and much more.
Image of a standing dry pomegranate half on a black background
Photo by Thomas Murphy on Unsplash
Meat and Pomegranate
By Cho Yeeun
Then she heard a gnawing. Urgent, like a starved animal ripping pieces of meat to devour.
Translated from Korean by Sung Ryu
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist: Bad Seed, The Joyful Song of the Partridge,...
The Watchlist: May 2024
By Tobias Carroll
Icelandic dystopia. A Quebecois graphic novel. Queer short stories from Puerto Rico. Tobias Carroll recommends all this and more in his May Watchlist.
The covers of the ten books featured in the list
Your 2024 International Women’s Day Reading List
By Alexander Aguayo
In honor of International Women's Day 2024, WWB recommends 10 forthcoming books written and translated by women, plus an honorable mention.
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist: Aya: Claws Come Out; The Djinn's Apple; Blue...
The Watchlist: February 2024
By Tobias Carroll
From an Ivorian graphic novel to a historical murder mystery from Algeria, Tobias Carroll recommends five new books in translation to read this month.
An image of three elevator doors in a white lobby
Photo by Edwin Chen on Unsplash
A Song for Sleep
By Bora Chung
A human has attempted to communicate with me by physical means.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
A tile cover of the books in the November Watchlist: Pedro and Marques Take Stock, Strangers in...
The Watchlist: November 2023
By Tobias Carroll
New this month: Tobias Carroll recommends eco-dystopia, a modern picaresque, innovative autofiction, and more, translated from Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Italian, Korean, and Portuguese.
Image of translator Anton Hur and writer Bora Chung semifinalists for the 2023 National Book Award
The National Book Award Interviews: Anton Hur and Bora Chung
By Words Without Borders
It was fate that I translated this book, says National Book Award semifinalist Anton Hur.
Multimedia
The covers of the nine books featured in the list: Suee and the Strange White Light, The House...
World Kid Lit Month: Read Around Asia
By Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, Kelly Zhang & Hongyu Jasmine Zhu
This World Kid Lit Month, join us for a tour of Asia with the best of translated Asian literature for young people, including picture books, middle-grade and YA fiction, and graphic novels.
A clocktower with a bright blue clock featuring the signs of the zodiac and a roman numeral for...
Photo by Josh Rangel on Unsplash
Me and the Stars
By Soje
Still, I have reservations about signing with a Pisces agent.
The twelve books featured in the list, in three rows of five
12 Translators Recommend Women in Translation
By Words Without Borders
For Women in Translation Month, a dozen translators recommend recent favorite books written and translated by women.
The covers of the six books featured in the Watchlist: Buland Al-Haidari and Modern Iraqi Poetry,...
The Watchlist: May 2023
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends new fiction, poetry, and nonfiction from Argentina, Germany, Iraq, Italy, and South Korea.
The covers of the books featured in the list
Your #IWD2023 Reading List
By Words Without Borders
In honor of International Women's Day 2023, WWB recommends 10 forthcoming books written and translated by women and published by small presses.
The covers of the books featured in the list
The Best Books of 2022—And What We’re Looking Forward to in 2023
By Words Without Borders
Our staff, contributors, and board members share their favorite translated books of the year and the titles they're looking forward to in 2023.
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist
The Watchlist: October 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books in translation from Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Colombia, South Korea, and Norway.
The covers of all the books featured in the list
12 Global Children’s Books for History Lovers
By Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
In celebration of #WorldKidLitMonth, Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp recommends 12 international books for young readers with an interest in world history.
two rows of people playing pachinko
Tischbeinahe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Pachinko Parlor
By Elisa Shua Dusapin
“Do you know what your grandmother’s mother did to avoid being subjected to speaking Japanese at school? She sliced off part of her own tongue.”
Translated from French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
The covers of the five books featured in the Watchlist
The Watchlist: September 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends new and exciting books in translation from Sudan, Belgium, Haiti, France, and South Korea.
July 2022 Poetry Collection Feature
8 Poetry Collections in Translation to Read in 2022
By Words Without Borders
Recent and forthcoming poetry in translation from Mexico, South Korea, Croatia, Haiti, and more.
A woman's mouth, chin, and neck
Photo by Pan Yunbo on Unsplash
Ligature Marks
By Lee Hyemi
The interplay of night and day. Deception and falsity.
Translated from Korean by Soje
Multilingual
Something No One Else Has
By Kyung-sook Shin
San feels reassured that Namae’s body is as skinny and pathetic as her own.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
The Literary Life of K-pop Lyrics
By Sang Young Park
I’d accumulated what is surely the biggest collection of gem-like K-pop lyrics in the world.
Translated by Anton Hur
Roommate, Woman
By Lee Young-ju
On waking, I see my body has been rearranged.
Translated from Korean by Jae Kim
MultimediaMultilingual
The Winners of the Words Without Borders—Academy of American Poets Poem-in-Translation Contest
By Words Without Borders
We received 717 poems from 282 poets from 87 countries translated from 55 languages.
The Cupboard with Strawberry Jam
By Lee Hyemi
If I had a spare season, I would’ve rushed to whisper vulgar words
Translated from Korean by Soje
Learn
Customer
By Lee Jong San
I heard that their overflowing hormones made them dangerously seductive.
Translated from Korean by Victoria Caudle
College Folk
By Kim Bong-gon
Caught off guard, we were laughably weak.
Translated from Korean by Kyoung-lee Park
Korean Literature Is Stepping Out
By Anton Hur
Now, thanks to our authors, we’re ready to step forth into the sun.
About My Daughter
By Kim Hye-jin
These kids could be just clever, fancy thugs.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta, Part III
By Sang Young Park
We were five minutes out on our jeep when the sound of an explosion big enough to shake the car resounded from behind us.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta, Part II
By Sang Young Park
I knew better than anyone else that Oh was not gay, that he was just using these rumors.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta
By Sang Young Park
I went to Iraq to make a queer film the likes of which the world had never seen.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
Multimedia
Conflicting Stories
By Susan Harris
These works reflect a striking range of existential challenges shaping lives across the globe.
February 2019 International Graphic Novel Grass Keum Suk Gendry Kim Feature
From “Grass”
By Keum Suk Gendry-Kim
I had no idea I wouldn't be coming back.
Translated by Janet Hong
LearnMultimedia
A faded print depicting a path through mounds of rock at a quarry
"Carrière aux Sables de Macherin," Eugène Cuvelier, 1863. Purchase, Harriette and Noel Levine Gift and Rogers Fund, 1996. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain.
The Emerging Literary Translator Valley of Death
By Anton Hur
The Valley of Death is where we learn the lay of the land, and it is also a time period in which we keep asking ourselves if this is what we want to do with our lives.
Flight: An International Exquisite Corpse
By Pema Bhum, Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Krys Lee & Kanako Nishi
Four writer/translator teams work together to create a single story in multiple languages.
Translated by Elizabeth Bryer, Kang Daehoon, Tenzin Dickie & Allison Markin Powell
Beyond Queer: The Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
The contributors to our Queer issues produce narratives that elude facile compartmentalization.
Dori and Jina
By Choi Jin-young
I didn’t know Dori’s wounds, and Dori didn’t know mine—perhaps that’s why we could see each other as we were in that moment.
Translated from Korean by Soje
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Just Dinner, but Oh, What a Feast
By Rohan Kamicheril
Though food may fail to broker communication, this is often one of its major supposed roles.
A Meal of Solitude for a Restless Heart
By Jeon Sungtae
I had never before paid so much attention to the act of eating.
Translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell
Learn
In Praise of Nonconformity: The Queer Issue
By Susan Harris
Behind the bigotry and hyperbole lurk the fear of the unknown, the threat to the status quo.
Genesis
By Jeon Sam-hye
Because what you felt when he turned you down was how I felt whenever I looked at you.
Translated from Korean by Anton Hur
LearnMultilingual
Tell Me Where to Go
By Kim Han-min
You're a born stranger. You'll feel out of place in every country.
Translated by Jamie Chang & Sora Kim-Russell
Learn
An array of colorful pastries on trays and in bowls
Photo by The Now Time on Unsplash
Wizard Bakery
By Koo Byung-Mo
Do not forget the magical forces you used today may circle back to you some day to return the favor.
Translated from Korean by Jamie Chang
Learn
Building a New World
By Valeria Luiselli
Perhaps language, especially written and read, acquaints time with space.
A Poem I Didn’t Name
By Ko Un
Now is a time of national mourning.
Translated from Korean by Brother Anthony of Taizé & Lee Sang-Wha
Say Ah, Pelican
By Park Min-gyu
Eventually the boats were no more than little dots in the sky
Translated from Korean by Jenny Wang Medina
from “I’ll Be Right There”
By Kyung-sook Shin
When whales swim toward the coastline, they sound like North Korean spy submarines.
Translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell
Learn
Injeolmi Rice Cakes
By Kim Sa-in
I would collapse on the warm floor and sleep like a cat.
Translated from Korean by Brother Anthony of Taizé & Susan Hwang
LearnMultilingual
A close-up of meat bound into a round shape, wrapped in plastic.
Photo by Bastenbas from Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
The Vegetarian
By Han Kang
In this excerpt from 2024 Nobel Laureate in Literature Han Kang's Booker Prize-winning novel, a man reels as his wife suddenly decides to give up meat.
Translated from Korean by Deborah Smith
Learn
Lament
By Han Yujoo
I can't write a single sentence.
Translated from Korean by Janet Hong
Multilingual
The Suit
By Young-ha Kim
He finally realized why Alex had hired an investigator and invited him to the US.
Translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell
LearnMultilingual