'Booker Prize Nominee' Anton Heo Praises Jeong Sora's 'Jeojutokki' for Its Fresh Literary Merit

Author Jeong Bora, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the UK, for her short story collection "The Cursed Rabbit," and translator Anton Hur are attending a press conference held on the 14th at the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Seomibeum] “Genre literature is often misunderstood as lacking literary quality, but (Jeong Sora) author’s work has a very literary style and the story was very original. Overseas publishers also said they needed to sign a contract quickly before another publisher took it.”

This is what Anton Heo, the translator of Jeong Sora’s “The Curse Rabbit” (Ajac), which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, one of the world’s three major literary awards, said. At a press conference held on the 14th at the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, translator Heo praised, “It’s amazing that I got to translate this book (‘The Curse Rabbit’),” and added, “It’s a work with very outstanding imagination.” He continued, “Since Jeong is naturally a very good writer, the translation work didn’t particularly require additional help.” He also said, “It’s not that Jeong can’t translate, but she chooses not to,” and “I was nervous, but I felt good because she complimented me. I definitely want to translate Jeong’s works in the future as well.”

Translator Heo’s view of translation is not simply about the act of translating itself. He considers the entire process of discovering works and delivering them worldwide as part of the translator’s role. He said, “As a translator, I am trying to expand the horizon of Korean literature globally,” and “Existing translation institutions tend to push certain specific literatures. It’s a kind of cultural power. But I am not like that. I tend not to discriminate by genre.” He added, “Sitting at the desk and translating accounts for only about 20% of the overall work,” and “Mostly, I meet publishers and write emails to persuasively convey that there are such great works in Korea.” The translation work is mostly discovered by the translator themselves. He also happened to meet “The Curse Rabbit” at the 2018 Wow Book Festival. As soon as he read the first chapter, he was captivated by the fascinating story and proposed translation to Jeong Sora and the publisher who were present there.

However, he pointed out, “It’s not an ideal situation for translators to also act as agents,” and “There should be many excellent agents who can help the publishing ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, Jeong, who said she started writing genre literature because “(during university) SF works had the highest manuscript fees,” attributed the motivation for writing “The Curse Rabbit” to an “unavoidable situation.” She said, “In 2015, when I was a contributor to the fantasy literature webzine ‘Mirror,’ we planned a special feature on the Twelve Zodiac Animals. All were chosen except for the sheep and the rabbit,” and “I didn’t know much about the sheep, so I ended up writing about the rabbit. Since it’s a pretty and cute animal, I thought I’d try to make it scary,” explaining her motivation for writing.

The winner will be decided on the 26th of next month. The prize money is 50,000 pounds (about 80 million KRW) and will be equally awarded to the author and the translator.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.