Season 4 Episode 7: Anton Hur, Literary Translator

Anton first popped on my radar thanks to Flora, a dear friend who also happens to be a great bookseller. She told me about this fantastic short story collection that she was reading called Cursed Bunny, written by Bora Chung and translated by Anton. I then picked up Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin at Yu and Me Books in New York last October. And wow, this beautiful book and Anton’s skilful translation moved me so much. Two of Anton’s translations were long listed for the 2022 International Booker Prize: Love in the Big City by Sang-Young Park and the afore-mentioned Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, which went on to be shortlisted for the same prize. I loved talking to Anton, it was challenging for me to edit this podcast because I didn’t want to cut anything out. He is a passionate reader with the utmost respect for his writers. He is not just an incredible translator, he is also a great advocate for other translators in terms of knowledge sharing and visibility. His opinions are also unfiltered, which makes for a great discussion. He spoke to me from Incheon, Korea, about a whole range of things: how he became a literary translator, the challenges that come with the job, life for women in Korea, upcoming projects and some top-line thoughts on queering translation.