May 16, 2016WLT
World Literature Today congratulates its May 2016 contributor and South Korean author Han Kang for winning the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards.
Han appears on WLT’s May 2016 cover, while inside isan exclusive interview with her in a special section on Asian writers. Han discusses how the reality of human violence influenced her while writing The Vegetarian,the novel that won this year’s Man Booker International Prize. She writes that her novel “depicts a woman who rejects. . . omnipresent and precarious violence even at a cost to herself.” She adds that “eating meat, cooking meat, all these daily activities embody a [version of extreme] violence that has been normalized.” Han also presents in this issue her own list ofleading contemporary Korean authors.
The Man Booker International Prize is given annually to a single book in English translation. Han will share the £50,000 prize equally with her translator Deborah Smith.
Han joins other Man Booker winners who have appeared in World Literature Today,including 2015 winner László Krasznahorkai and fellow 2016 nominees José Eduardo Agualusa, Elena Ferrante, Orhan Pamuk, and Yan Lianke. One of the judges for this year’s Man Booker Prize, Tahmima Anam, also appeared on May 2013 cover of World Literature Today.
Volume 90 No. 3, May 2016
The May 2016 issue of World Literature Today (Vol. 90, No. 3-4) is double-packed with interviews, fiction, poetry, and essays, including a special section featuring four writers who are redefining East Asian writing with powerful autobiographical voices. Other highlights include fiction by Carlos Pintado, poetry from Amit Majmudar, and an essay on the Neustadt Prize by William Marling. Our comprehensive review section—packed with the best in fiction, verse, and nonfiction—is augmented by WLT’s annual roundup of our editors’ summer reading lists. Everything you need to spend your summer immersed in the best writing the world has to offer is waiting for you!
Table of Contents
Editor’s Note
Four Asian Voices
INTERVIEW: “Violence and Being Human: A Conversation with Han Kang,” by Krys Lee
LIST: WLT’s 10 Sidebar Shorts with Han Kang
READING LIST: “A Contemporary Korean Reading List,” by Han Kang
PUTERBAUGH ESSAY SERIES: “Writing a Life Back into the World,” by Bernice Chauly
INTERVIEW: “Prayer Flags and Kinship Rivers: A Conversation with Wang Ping,” by Amy Lantrip
POETRY: Two Poems, by Ming Di
ESSAYS
“The Persistence of Books,” by Rebecca L. Walkowitz
“Delhi: 21st Century City,” by Vikram Kapur
“The Neustadt Prize and the Framing Effect,” by William Marling
“The Local as the Global: Reflections on Teaching World Literature,” by Emad Mirmotahari