Join Cheon Myeong-kwan for a reading from his International Booker Prize-shortlisted novel Whale. Translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim, Whale is a sprawling adventure-satire about three interconnected women, set in a remote village in South Korea. Following the reading, Cheon will be joined in discussion by University of Washington Professor Heekyoung Cho. Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions following the discussion and Cheon will be available to sign copies of his book. The event will be held in the Microsoft Auditorium at the Seattle Public Library on Wednesday, June 7th at 7 pm PST. Registration is required in advance; you can get your free ticket here. 

More information can be found on Third Place Books’ website here.

Cheon Myeong-kwan is a South Korean novelist, screenwriter, and director. Whale, his debut novel, was published in 2004 and was the winner of the 10th Munhakdongne Award. The novel has since become a contemporary classic in South Korea. His work has been translated into Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Thai, Turkish, Russian, and Vietnamese.

Heekyoung Cho is a University of Washington Associate Professor in the department of Asian Languages and Literature and Adjunct Associate Professor in Slavic Languages and Literatures. She researches and teaches on Korean literature and translation studies and is particularly interested in the literary and cultural relationships between Korea, Russia, and Japan. She is the author of Translation’s Forgotten History: Russian Literature, Japanese Mediation, and the Formation of Modern Korean Literature (Harvard University Press, 2016).