Happy Pride! To commemorate, we sat down with award-winning literary translator Anton Hur. Anton’s translation of the queer Korean novel “Love in the Big City” by Park Sang-young was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Anton delved into how his unique upbringing shaped his career path, the current landscape for LGBT books and media in Korea, and the one queer Korean book you must check out.
We also have a special shoutout for one of our listeners, Erica. Erica runs a Korean book club in Amsterdam, so if anyone in the area is interested in joining, you can follow her on Instagram @SpeakingOfKorea!
We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, or suggestions for other Korean books you’d like us to review or discuss. Tweet us (Beth @_paperfetishist / Naomi @ngnaomi) or leave a message on The Korea Herald’s Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram page. You can also email us at bethhong@heraldcorp.com or ngnaomi@heraldcorp.com.
📢 COVID-19 precautions were taken to ensure the safety of the production team.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/khbookspodcast
Intro: ♪ Onion (Prod. by Lukrembo)
Outro: ♪ Wine (Prod. by Lukrembo)
0:15 Introducing Anton Hur 1:25 Growing up as a Third Culture Kid 3:57 How many languages does Anton speak? 5:37 Relationship with books and libraries 10:01 From law to translation 12:58 Life and challenges as a married gay couple in Korea 16:26 Has public acceptance of LGBT in Korea grown? 17:51 Growing visibility of LGBT K- content 19:57 Anton’s take on rise of queer K-literature 22:28 Where to look for LGBT Korean books 26:16 Anton’s No. 1 pick 27:19 BTS book? Sci-fi? Anton’s book? 33:31 A Korean book pick from our listener Erica