Int'l writers' festival to kick off in Seoul next month

SEOUL, August 10 (Yonhap) -- An annual gathering of South Korean and international authors will commence next month, focusing on the intersection of human values and literature in the era of advancing artificial intelligence, according to organizers. The festival will be held at the Ara Art Center in central Seoul from September 11th to the 16th, featuring 24 distinguished writers, as reported by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea).

The theme of the event is "Who Are We." A series of 20 programs, encompassing author talks, graphic novel artists, translators, and readers, will be conducted via both online and in-person platforms. Prominent Korean author Kim Ae-ran and Chilean novelist Benjamin Labatut will kick off the event with the session titled "We Are Someone."

Other attendees include Korean writers Lee Seung-u, Moon Ji-hyuck, and Yeh So-yeon, Taiwanese novelist Chen Xue, Canadian poet Emily Jungmin Yoon, and Japanese novelist Keiichiro Hirano, as per organizers' announcements.