2008 Sejong Writing Competition
Judges
Sijo Judges:
Brother Anthony |
Bruce Fulton |
David McCann
Essay Judges:
Jae-Ha Kim |
Ty Pak |
Sun Yung Shin
Brother Anthony was born in 1942 in England. He is a member of the Community of Taizé (France). Since 1980, he has been living in Korea, teaching at Sogang University in Seoul, where he is now an emeritus professor. He has published more than 20 volumes of English translations of modern Korean literature, including 6 volumes of works by Ko Un, several volumes of poems by Ku Sang, and others of poems by Ch’on Sang-Pyong, Shin Kyong-Nim, Yi Si-Young and Kim Kwang-Kyu, etc. as well as a novel by Yi Mun-yol. An Sonjae is the Korean name he took on becoming a Korean citizen in 1994. His webpage can be seen here. It is worth looking at.
Bruce Fulton is the inaugural holder of the Young-Bin Min Chair in Korean Literature and Literary Translation in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. His interest in Korea dates from his service as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Korea in 1978-79. He subsequently obtained an M.A. in Korean Regional Studies from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in Modern Korean Literature from Seoul National University with a dissertation on the short fiction of Hwang Sun-wŏn.
His research interests lie in modern Korean fiction and its translation; narrative style in contemporary Korean fiction; Korean women’s fiction; and identity transformation as reflected in military-camptown fiction. He has co-translated several anthologies of modern Korean short fiction, including the prize-winning Words of Farewell: Stories by Korean Women Writers (Seal Press, 1989) and A Ready-Made Life: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction (University of Hawai’i Press, 1998); is co-editor (with Youngmin Kwon) of Modern Korean Fiction: An Anthology (Columbia University Press, 2005); and edited the Korea sections of the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia and the Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature. His most recent translations (with Ju-Chan Fulton) are The Dwarf by Cho Se-hŭi (University of Hawai’i Press, 2006) and There a Petal Silently Falls: Three Stories by Ch’oe Yun (Columbia University Press, 2008). He and Ju-Chan Fulton received the first NEA Translation Fellowship ever awarded for a translation from the Korean (1995) and the first Banff International Literary Translation Centre residency awarded for a translation from any Asian literature (2007).
David R. McCann, ICAS, is Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations as well as Director of the Korea Institute at Harvard University. David is the recipient of numerous prizes, grants, and fellowships including the prestigious Manhae Prize in Arts and Sciences (2004), the Daesan Foundation Translation Grant (1997), and the Korea P.E.N. Center Translation Prize (1994). His many books include Traveler Maps: Poems by Ko Un (2004), The Columbia Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry (2004), Early Korean Literature: Selections and Introductions (2001), War and Democracy: A Comparative Study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War (2001) and The Classical Moment: Views from Seven Literatures (1999).
Not only a renowned translator of major Korean poems but also a well-recognized poet, David has published many poems in such distinguished media as Poetry, Ploughshares, Descant, Runes and recently published a chapbook of poems Cat Bird Tree (2005). His poem "David" was included in the Pushcart Prize Anthology III. David's new book of poems The Way I Wait For You has been accepted for publication by Codhill Press and will be published this year.
Jae-Ha Kim is a New York Times bestselling author whose travel column “Go Away With...” is syndicated by the Chicago Tribune's TMS to more than 70 outlets. She has cheered on Hobbits battling Orcs in New Zealand, jet skied around Bora Bora and rappelled down some of Colorado's steepest cliffs...all in pursuit of a great story. A voting member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Kim's writing credits include articles in such publications as the Hollywood Reporter, Amazon.com, Blur, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, People, Los Angeles Confidential and Playboy. She also is a regular contributor to newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the San Francisco Examiner, the Denver Post and the Chicago Sun-Times. Kim wrote the first book about the hit sitcom "Friends" and is a co-editor of several travel guide books.
Kim's television experience includes Fox News Chicago, where she was an on-air film critic. In addition, she has appeared as a pop culture expert on NBC's "Today," "Entertainment Tonight," A&E's "Biography" and E! Entertainment.
Born in Seoul and raised in Chicago, Kim got her first passport at the age of four and hasn't stopped traveling. She earned her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Chicago and has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. Kim and her husband reside in the Chicago area.
Born in Korea in 1938, critically acclaimed Korean American writer Ty Pak lived through his country’s liberation from Japan in 1945, its division under U.S. and Soviet occupation, and the trauma of the Korean War, 1950–53, during which his father died. After getting his law degree at Seoul National University in 1961, he worked as a reporter for the English-language dailies, Korean Republic and Korea Times, until 1965, when he came to the United States and got his Ph.D. in English at Bowling Green State University in 1969. After a year’s postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, he taught in the English Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa from 1970 to 1987, when he took early retirement to devote himself to writing.
His published fiction has been widely anthologized and includes Guilt Payment (1983), Cry Korea Cry (1999), and Moonbay (1999). His 1961 book, A Korean Decameron, is being reprinted with a grant from Harvard University. His scholarly articles and monographs have appeared in many journals such as Language, Lingua, Semiotica, and Journal of Formal Logic.
Married and with three children, Ty Pak now lives in Honolulu.
Sun Yung Shin is a 2007 Bush Artist Fellow for Literature and author of the collection of poems Skirt Full of Black (Coffee House Press 2007); co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writings on Transracial Adoption; (South End Press 2006) and author of Cooper’s Lesson (Children's Book Press 2004) a bilingual Korean/English illustrated book for children. Born in Seoul and raised in Chicago she currently lives near St. Paul, Minnesota. Her website is http://www.sunyungshin.com.