[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Kevin O'Rourke Prize winner Ku Bon-seung
For Ku Bon-seung, translating fiction began with wanting to share something remarkable with friends who could not read Korean. After reading a novella by writer Danyao in the summer of 2025, Ku asked for permission to translate it. The author suggested translating the whole collection instead. That exchange led to Ku’s English translation of “Giraffe Is the Name of the World,” which won this…
![[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Kevin O'Rourke Prize winner Ku Bon-seung](/img/19229835)
Ku Bon-seung's journey into translating fiction started with a desire to share a remarkable story with friends who couldn't read Korean. In the summer of 2025, he came across a novella by writer Danyao and approached him for permission to translate the entire collection. Danyao agreed, and this led to Ku translating "Giraffe Is the Name of the World," which earned him the 57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards' Kevin O'Rourke Prize.
Through this experience, Ku discovered the power of translation as a means of conveying experiences that summaries couldn't fully capture. He explained to The Korea Times, "I experienced something remarkable while reading Danyao's works, and I knew that this quality was holistic, irreducible to a well-delivered summary." Ku realized that simply sharing the original Korean text and suggesting translation tools wouldn't be enough to fulfill his responsibility to provide a true testimony.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
This story
This is one outlet's version. Read the fullest account.
