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

Notes on Contributors, 408