Each year, the Writing University conducts interviews with writers while they are in Iowa City participating in the International Writing Program's fall residency. We sit down with authors to ask about their work, their process and their descriptions of home. Today we are talking with Han Junghyun , a fiction writer from South Korea.

Han Junghyun (fiction writer; South Korea) is a novelist. Her debut short novel '아돌프와 알베르트의 언어' [The Language of Adolf and Albert] won the Dong-a Ilbo New Writer’s Contest in 2015. In 2019, she won the Today's Writer Award for her novel '줄리아나도쿄' [Juliana Tokyo]. In 2020, she won the Young Writer's Award and the Queer Literature Award for her queer romance '우리의 소원은 과학소년' [Our Wish is a Science Boy]. In 2021, she won the Kim Yu Jeong Literature Award and the BUMA Democratic Uprising Literary Award for '쿄코와 쿄지' [Kyoko and Kyoji]. Her participation was made possible by a grant from Arts Council Korea (ARKO). 

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1. Do you have a plan or project in mind for your time at the residency?
I am a novelist, but I am also a scholar of contemporary Korean culture, especially women and queers. And my novels contain such content. I write love stories about the hidden history of women and queers from the 1900s, the Japanese colonial period, to the present. So my novels are related to Japan, but they are also related to the United States. I was curious about how Korean literature is perceived in the world, but I also wanted to know about the United States, which is an important part of my novels. These days, with the Internet, you can think of information anywhere, but I thought it was different to see it in person. And most of all... I am grateful that I have had many opportunities to write novels over the years. I am very grateful. But I think I was a little tired. Sometimes I felt like I had lost my love for literature. I wanted to get my love for literature back.

2. What does your daily practice look like for your writing? Do you have a certain time when you write? Any specific routine?
As I mentioned earlier, I am a writer and a scholar. I often teach at universities. I write novels as well as film columns. Since I do these things in addition to writing, even if I create a special routine, it ends up changing depending on the deadline. So rather than having a set routine, I try to write whenever I have time. Seoul is a big city, and it takes about an hour to get around by subway or bus for most people. It’s a great opportunity to write. I wrote a lot of novels on my iPhone while riding the subway or bus. I write on my iPhone while preparing meals in the kitchen. I always write whenever I have time. In terms of other routines, I watch three or more movies a week, read two books while understanding them, go to exhibitions at least twice, and watch plays and musicals once a month. I stick to these things. And I take a walk for an hour every day. Somehow. I don’t go to fancy places. These things inspire my writing. Another thing is that I mostly read academic papers when I do research before I start writing in earnest. It’s probably because I write historical novels. But the reason I don’t read novels is because I’m worried that they might influence me. And then after that, I watch YouTube videos of K-pop idols. It's a bit unusual, right? But K-pop idols' stage performances inspire me to create stories. This is my writing routine.

3. What are you currently reading right now? Are you reading for research or pleasure?
I liked writers like Roberto Bolaño and Sebald. I also liked writers like René Domal and Robert Walser. In Korea, I really liked Bae Soo-ah. However, in recent years, as I have been writing novels, I have wanted to distance myself from literature. And in order to write, I mostly read non-fiction, not literature. here, I read to IWP writers. It is purely for enjoyment. I am rediscovering the love for novels that I had lost over the years of writing novels. Among the writers who came with me, I also enjoyed reading the novels of Natalie and Dyariel. I was particularly impressed by the short story <Filling up with sugar> by Yuten Sawanishi. It was about a mother who becomes sick and her body turns into sugar. It is ironic, but understandable, that her body turns into sweet sugar as she dies and becomes sick. Because sugar is like that. It is very sweet, but if you eat too much, it becomes poison. I don’t know if my mother’s illness is a metaphor or reality. The author must have written it with reality in mind, but I felt that mother's loneliness caused her illness. I think it's because in the novel, she says that she hasn't met anyone since her father died. That's why the first organ that turns into sugar is the Vagina. The entire novel has a lonely and clean impression. If I had read it without knowing who the author was, I would have thought it was a woman. In addition, there's no sense of nationality, so, it contains emotions that anyone who has lost someone or felt lonely in their daily life can relate to. Even though the mother doesn't say anything in this novel, you can feel all that. The narrator is the same. He doesn't say anything directly. Because he shows all of this through scenes, giving the reader room to imagine and think, it felt even lonelier. Some deep emotions and sadness are difficult to explain in words.

4. What is one thing the readers and writers of Iowa City should know about you and your work?
I have mainly written novels about Korean cultural history, especially women and queers, in relation to the United States and Japan. However, I do not write only about women in U.S. military camp towns or Japanese military sexual slaves. I am not unconditionally on the side of Korea. Also, I do not say that the United States and Japan are unconditionally bad. Since I am a researcher, I know the complexity of history and culture. To be honest, I am always on the side of minorities, not a specific country. Maybe that is why. At the IWP translation workshop, the professor in charge said after reading my novel, “This is a love story. It is not a story of history.” It is the same in Korea. Thankfully, my novels have received many awards and love over the past few years. People often say that my novels are “historical novels that unearth love.” This is probably because I write about women and queers who have been erased from official history. In particular, it is because I talk about love, which is important in human life. History and humans are partners anyway. History may seem bigger at first glance, but we now know that a human life is as great as a nation’s history. This is why I want you to read my novels.

5. Tell us a bit about where you are from - share some favorite details about your home.
I come from Seoul, Korea. I lived in Seoul for almost 20 years. I really love Seoul. My house is located in the center of Seoul. Seoul is a really big city with a forest of buildings, but the Han River runs through the middle and there are many mountains, big and small. So there are a lot of trees and parks. It is such a beautiful place. Also, I like it because there are many beautiful cafes. In my house, I liked the living room as expected. My balcony overlooks the river. It is open so there is a lot of sunlight, and just looking at the sunlight made me feel good. I thought I was very lucky to live in such a bright and airy house. I always put flowers in the living room. There was a big flower market in Yangjae, so I went there every Sunday. I used to change the flowers depending on my mood.

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Thank you so much!