Min Byoung-chul’s 'Land of Squid Game' launches in Turkiye

"Land of Squid Game," authored by Min Byoung-chul, an endowed chair professor at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, founder of the Sunfull Foundation and a renowned scholar in English education and multicultural studies, was officially published in Turkiye this May. Inspired by Netflix’s hit series "Squid Game," the bilingual English-Korean book introduces traditional Korean games such as "ttakji chigi" and red light, green light, while centering on the question: “Why do Koreans speak and behave thi

May 25, 2025

Korean publishing sees steady growth in 2024, though translated works continue to decline

South Korea’s publishing industry recorded modest but steady growth in 2024, with 64,306 new titles registered with the Korean Publishers Association — a 2.3 percent increase from the 62,865 titles published in 2023. According to the KPA’s annual report, literature and social sciences remained the most active categories, producing 14,118 and 12,163 titles respectively. The number of active domestic publishing companies registered in the publisher/printer search system reached a record high of 81

May 22, 2025

Filmmaker Park Chan-wook to speak at Seoul International Book Fair

Filmmaker Park Chan-wook, renowned for his visually striking and psychologically complex films, will participate in the 2025 Seoul International Book Fair, the annual book fair's organizer announced Wednesday. Park has often drawn inspiration from literature, adapting several novels into screen productions including the HBO series "The Sympathizer" (2024) and the BBC series "The Little Drummer Girl" (2019). During his talk on June 20, titled Park Chan-wook's Literary Anchors, Park will discuss e

May 21, 2025

'Silence is dangerous. We must keep chatting': bilingual novelist Yoko Tawada

Yoko Tawada, a celebrated novelist who writes in both Japanese and German, is skeptical about the use of artificial intelligence in literary translation. “I’ve heard predictions that AI translations will decline in quality year by year,” Tawada said at a press conference in Seoul on Monday. “Since these systems learn from the sentences produced by a wide range of anonymous translators, the proportion of poorly constructed sentences will inevitably increase. In the long term, I don’t think it wil

May 20, 2025

Debut picture book on curious cat's adventure wins Italian children's literature prize

Korean author Choi Yeon-ju’s debut picture book "Mo Story" ("Gatto Mo e gli amici del bosco" in Italian) has won the Ragazze e Ragazzi at Italy’s Premio Strega, one of the country's most important literary awards. The story follows a curious cat named Mo who sneaks out of the house in the middle of the night and embarks on an unexpected adventure. The jury praised the book as a “sweet, simple and profound fairy tale that takes young readers on a journey of growth and discovery.” The Premio Streg

May 19, 2025