Anton Hur (; born April 7, 1981) is a Korean writer and translator of

Korean literature Korean literature is the body of literature produced by Koreans, mostly in the Korean language and sometimes in Classical Chinese. For much of Korea's 1,500 years of literary history, it was written in Hanja. It is commonly divided into classi ...

into English. He has translated the works of Kyung-Sook Shin,

Hwang Sok-yong Hwang Sok-yong (born January 4, 1943) is a South Korean novelist. Biography Hwang was born in Xinjing (today Changchun), Manchukuo, during the period of Japanese rule. His family returned to Korea after liberation in 1945. He later obtai ...

, and Sang Young Park, whose '' Love in the Big City'' was longlisted for the 2022

International Booker Prize The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Boo ...

, and Bora Chung, whose collection of short stories '' Cursed Bunny'' was shortlisted for the same prize. Hur was also the only translator that year to have been longlisted for two translations. Hur was awarded a

PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants The PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants were established in 2003 by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) following a gift of $730,000 by Michael Henry Heim, a noted literary translator. Heim believed that there was a "dismayingly low number of ...

for his translation of ''Cursed Bunny''. Hur was awarded a PEN Translates grant to translate ''The Underground Village'' by Kang Kyeong-ae.

Biography

Hur, a Korean citizen, was born in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

on 7 April 1981. His father worked for

KOTRA KOTRA (Korea Trade Promotion Corporation initially, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency since 1995) is a state-funded trade and investment promotion organization operated by the Government of South Korea.Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a Private university, private research university in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 1905 by Yi Yong-ik, Lee Yong-Ik, a prominent official of the Korean Empire, Korea University is among South Korea's oldest List of ...

and French at

Korea National Open University Korea National Open University (KNOU, ) is a national university of South Korea. KNOU is South Korea’s leading institution for open education, providing accessible and flexible higher education to over 94,000 students and the largest educat ...

before pursuing a master's degree in English literature at

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

. He began working as a translator full-time in 2018, beginning with Kyung-Sook Shin's ''The Court Dancer''. He manages the literary translation group Smoking Tigers. In addition to translating Korean literature into English, Hur is also the translator of the forthcoming Korean edition of

Ocean Vuong Ocean Vuong (born , ; born October 14, 1988) is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. He is the recipient of the 2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, 2016 Whiting Award, an ...

's ''

Night Sky with Exit Wounds ''Night Sky with Exit Wounds'' is a 2016 collection of poetry by Vietnamese American poet and essayist Ocean Vuong. The book won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2017—which made him the youngest winner of the award at the time at 29 years old, as we ...

''. His writing has been published in outlets such as '' Astra Magazine'',

Words Without Borders ''Words Without Borders'' (''WWB'') is an international magazine open to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world's best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers. The ...

Lithub ''Literary Hub'' or ''LitHub'' is a daily literary website that was launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and ''Electric Literature'' ...

, ''

Asymptote In analytic geometry, an asymptote () of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero as one or both of the ''x'' or ''y'' coordinates tends to infinity. In projective geometry and related contexts, ...

'', and many others. In 2022, he was a recipient of the 13th Hong Jin-Ki Creator Award, created in honour of the founder of the newspaper

JoongAng Ilbo ''The JoongAng'', formerly known as ''JoongAng Ilbo'' (), is a South Korean daily newspaper published in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the three biggest newspapers in South Korea, and a newspaper of record for South Korea. The paper also pu ...

, which honours "Koreans who made crucial contributions to society, science and technology, as well as culture and arts". In 2025, Hur was on the judging panel for the International Booker Prize. Hur's first novel, ''Toward Eternity,'' was published in 2024. Hur is openly

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

and has written about sexuality, the history of diverse sexuality in Korean literature beginning with

Yi Gwangsu Yi Gwangsu (; February 1, 1892 – October 25, 1950) was a Korean writer, Korean independence activist, and later collaborator with Imperial Japan. Yi is best known for his novel ' (''The Heartless''), which is often described as the first mo ...

's 1909 short story ''Is It Love'', and misery as an enduring theme in queer Korean literature''.'' He and his husband divide their time between Seoul and

Songdo Songdo (), officially known as Songdo International Business District (Songdo IBD), is a smart city built on of reclaimed land along Incheon's waterfront, southwest of Seoul, South Korea. It is connected to Incheon International Airport by a r ...

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

. Hur uses he/they pronouns.

Selected translations

* * * * * * * * * * * Chung, Bora (2024), '' Your Utopia'', Algonquin Books,

Works

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hur, Anton Living people 1981 births Korean–English translators Literary translators Seoul National University alumni 21st-century translators