Azalea is a new annual journal of Korean literature and culture published by the Korea Institute at Harvard University and distributed by the University of Hawai‘i Press. Volume 1 is now available.
Azalea aims to promote Korean literature among English-language readers. The first volume includes works of several contemporary Korean writers and poets, as well as essays and book reviews by Korean studies professors in the United States. Azalea will introduce to the world new writers and also promising translators. The journal will provide the academic community of Korean studies with well-translated texts for college classes. Writers from elsewhere in the world will also share their experience of Korean literature or culture with wider audiences.
David R. McCann
Editor’s Note, 7
“Azalea is about Korean literature and literary culture, and therefore about writing, publishing, translating, and reading. The writing has already happened, the translation too, but now for the reading! We have looked at original works, wondering who might best translate a gem. Or we have discovered a strong translation and asked, ‘Can we publish it?’ And how might artwork of various kinds, or perhaps photographs of Korea contemporaneous with the literary works, be added to the mix? The occasional hortatory note, such as my own in this issue about the 1953 short story ‘Cranes’ by Hwang Sunwŏn, may add another edge, perhaps, to the reader’s framing and reframing of the piece.” —from the Editor’s Note
Writer in Focus : Kim Young-ha
Kim Young-ha
This Tree of Yours, 9
Dafna Zur
Interview with Kim Young-ha, 27
Kim Young-ha
Their Last Visitor, 31
My Brother’s Back, 37
Fiction
Sung Suk-je
First Love, 61
Yoon Sung-Hee
To Bury a Treasure Map at the U-turn, 81
Yun Dae Nyeong
The Silver Trout Fishing Network, 113
Kim Jung-Hyuk
Inuk the Inventor, 137
Ha Seong-nan
Blooms of Mold, 171
Park Min-gyu
Raccoon World, 193
Kim Aeran
Run, Dad!, 227
Lee Hye-kyung
Between Us and the Rest, 257
Feature : Another Perspective
Hwang Sunwŏn
Cranes, 305
David R. McCann
On Hwang Sunwŏn’s “Cranes”, 313
Lee Chang-dong
The Dreaming Beast, 317
Heinz Insu Fenkl
On the Narratography of Lee Chang-dong: A Long Translator’s Note, 339
Poetry
Kim Hyesoon
Boiling, Two Pages of Tongue, Spring Rain, A Hundred-Year-Old Fox, Water Spider’s House, 97
Hwang Jiwoo
Contour Lines of the Rain 1, The Greeting 2, A Flash, My Lotus Pond, My Sanatorium, Stone Buddha Leaning Against a Wall in the Subway, 105
Huh Su-gyung
Evening Soaks Us and, That Time, Yŏngbyŏn, Leaves of Reed, Sound of Trees Swaying, Thus Laughing Days Continued, 159
Lee Si-Young
A Dried Fish, Parallel, Distance, Risky Abode, Evening Hours, 167
Kim Seung-Hui
A Parcel of Eggs, Santa Cello, Blue 5 Amazing Grace, The Rainbow’s Promise, Pots Banging, 215
Lee Moon-jae
Between Heaven and Earth, Joke, Heart, Poet and Farmer, 223
Hwang In-sook
I Wish to Be Born as a Cat, Pink Bird, Drowsiness, Regret, The Birds Set the Sky Free, 277
Kim Chiha
There Will Be No Return, Fig, At Haech’ang, Fifty Simultaneous Pecking from Inside and Out, 283
Ko Un
Ŏnnyŏn in Siberia, Hallelujah, Yi Jŏng-yi’s Family, DDT, Kwŏn Jin-gyu, 295
Chonggi Mah
The Fall of Paterson, Calling Names, Alaska Psalm 1, 4, and 5, 357
Song Ch’an-ho
An old tale taken from a trunk, Camellia, Camellia opening wide, Orchard with a hedge of bitter orange trees, Camellias falling, 365
Book Review
Ronald Suleski
The Guest by Hwang Sok-yong, 289
Interview
Mickey Hong
Peter H. Lee: Fifty Years with Korean Literature in America, 371
Korea from the Outside
Orhan Pamuk
First Impressions, 391
Robert Pinsky
Peace, Poetry, and Negation, 395
Images Index, 406
