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| President of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) of Korea Kim Sa-in speaks during a press conference in central Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of LTI Korea |
By Anna J. Park
This year's Seoul International Writers' Festival will be held for nine days at Seoul's iconic Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) from Oct. 5 to 13, inviting 32 renowned novelists and poets from over a dozen countries.
Under the main theme of "Thousands of Mirrors Reflecting Us," the festival offers a full schedule of 25 events, including one-on-one discussions among writers, and performance readings. Award-winning authors, including Graeme Macrae Burnet from the U.K., Chandrahas Choudhury from India, Forrest Gander from the U.S, Nicolas Mathieu from France, as well as Shinji Ishii from Japan, will be joining the event. Popular Korean authors, including Bae Su-ah, Han Yu-joo, Moon Chung-hee and Lee Seung-U, among many others, will also take part in the festival.
This year's festival marks the eighth installment since it launched back in 2006 as a biennial event. Starting this year, the Seoul International Writers' Festival will be held annually. This is the first year that the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea), the main organizer of the writers' festival, co-hosts this festival together with the Seoul Foundation for Art and Culture and Seoul Design Foundation.
LTI Korea President Kim Sa-in said through the co-hosting, he hopes this representative writers' festival of Korea can gain more influence and significance on an international level.
"Over the last decade, LTI Korea has been hosting the international writers' festival; from this year, the joint efforts by the institute and the foundations strengthened our competencies to bring about a quality festival. We hope writers, as well as the public, can gain inspiration and stimulation through these exchanges, and contribute to the maturity of all Korean literature. We also hope this festival can create a significant agenda and messages for the future of the literary circles of the world," Kim said during a press conference held in central Seoul, Tuesday.
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| Kim Jong-whee, President of Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, speaks during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of LTI Korea |
The Seoul Foundation for Art and Culture contributes on making the writers' festival more accessible to the public, especially in the programs of its opening ceremony and performance readings.
"The opening ceremony will be full of spectacular entertainment for the public, including a performance by a renowned dance company of traditional Korean arts. We also interviewed every writer participating in the Performance Reading programs, so that the performances do not stray away from the writers' original intent in their literary works," Kim Jong-whee, president of Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, said during the press conference.
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| Seoul Design Foundation CEO Choi Kyung-ran speaks during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of LTI Korea |
Another co-host of this festival, the Seoul Design Foundation, will be in charge of providing a memorable venue for participating authors as well as the public. It is the first time that the Seoul International Writers' Festival will be held at the iconic DDP, designed by world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid.
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| The 2019 Seoul International Writers' Festival will be held from Oct. 5 to 13 at Seoul's iconic DDP. Courtesy of LTI Korea |
Some of the more than 1,000 books which the LIT helped to translate into over 40 languages during the past decades will be displayed at the first floor of the DDP during the festival.
What is new about this year's program is that some of the participating authors will meet readers at various locations in Seoul. Dubbed "A Writer's Room," 12 occasions are slated to be held at independent bookstores, publishers and universities.
Visit siwf.or.kr for specific programs and details of the festival.
