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Stories That Bloom in Steadfast Hearts: New Releases from January and February 2025 scrap download

단단한 마음을 향해 움트기 시작하는 이야기! 1월과 2월의 신간 도서입니다.

「KLWAVE introduces international readers to various works of Korean literature. “New Releases” features titles that have been published in January and February 2025, selected from Kyobo Book Centre’s “Book of the Month” and Aladin’s “Magician’s Choice” lists.」

This winter stretched longer than usual. We have been waiting eagerly for the sharp, biting winds to retreat. Now, as we finally open our windows, we are greeted by spring’s quiet arrival. A fresh breeze seeps into our daily lives and into our hearts that have patiently endured the cold. Though we might sometimes feel helpless against winter’s indifferent chill, we know better—hearts that have withstood bone-chilling cold are never truly powerless. 

It is time to throw open the doors of our hears and welcome spring. This season, we are delighted to share new books from January and February that will strengthen our hearts and spirits. 
Baik Sou-Linne’s fourth short story collection, Everything About Spring Nights, showcases the author’s signature delicate and contemplative perspective. The seven stories feature characters navigating their own personal losses—the death of a loved one, breakup with a partner, and others. With her renowned talent as “the writer of light,” Baik masterfully portrays the pivotal moments when her characters emerge from the darkness of their profound pain to finally encounter glimmers of hope. 

We all know those moments when the void of what we have lost and their lingering traces left behind weigh heavy on our hearts. Sometimes we fall into despair, feeling as though this frigid winter might never end. Yet Baik reminds us of a powerful truth: even when our lives and the world seem to be in the deepest winters, we can choose to wait for spring. We can choose to believe that spring will come.

Hoping this steadfast belief reaches everyone, we invite you to sense the subtle awakening of spring even in winter’s grip. To envision the warm spring days that inevitably await us. For hearts frozen by loss and absence, Everything About Spring Nights will be a perfect companion for those spring nights when tender green leaves begin to unfurl. 
One short story collection has become the first work of Korean literature nominated for the prestigious Philip K. Dick Award—one of the world’s three most distinguished science fiction literary prizes. Bora Chung’s Your Utopia is a revised edition of the Korean short story collection titled To Meet Her, originally published in 2021. 
 
The title story “Your Utopia” follows a smart car carrying the malfunctioning humanoid robot 314 on an endless journey across a barren planet long abandoned by humanity. Throughout this dark and violent world, 314 persistently asks everyone the same question:
“On a scale of one to ten, your utopia is?”

This collection invites us to contemplate our own ideal world. Perhaps the true essence of humanity lies precisely in this determination—our will to demand a better world, to mourn our losses, and to push forward once again.
Slow Rhythms of the Heart weaves together eight heartwarming stories connected by the shared theme of “birthdays.” As author Yoon Sung-hee herself describes the collection, these are “stories about people who walk slowly, see slowly, and think slowly,” and a gentle, unhurried humor flows quietly throughout each narrative.

For those moments when you feel overwhelmed by a society that worships speed and efficiency alone, when you year to reconnect with the value of slowness, Yoon’s fictional world offers a perfect refuge. Slowness, after all, is a pace of its own. The lingering emotions that seep into the “slow rhythms of the heart” leave an impression both profound and abundantly rich.
Ye So-yeon‘s The Dog and the Revolution won the grand prize at the 48th Yi Sang Literary Award. The work carries particular significance as it is the first winner since the award’s administration transferred from Munhak Sasang (Literature & Thought) to Dasan Books last year. 

“The Dog and the Revolution” depicts a connection between the 1980s student movement generation and the 2020s feminist youth as they work together to “turn things upside down.” Critics have celebrated it as a work of “radical love that transcends ideology,” opening new horizons in contemporary Korean literature. The collection also features works by Kim Kitae, Moon Ji Hyuck, Seo Jang-won, Jung Ki-hyun, and Choi Min-Woo.
Novelist Kim Keum-Hee has returned with a travel memoir from Antartica, becoming the first Korean novelist to document an extended stay on the frozen continent. This ice-covered land at the world’s end—where no sovereignty, currency, or borders exist—had long been a place the author dreamed of visiting. 

Spending approximately one month at Antarctica’s King Sejong Station as a special correspondent for the Korean newspaper The Hankyoreh, Kim experienced with her entire being the process of becoming smaller, simpler, and more humble as a human within the vastness of nature. My Polar Diary captures every moment of her journey—-the overwhelming wonder and profound emotion that nature bestowed upon her throughout this remarkable journey.
Looking back on our teenage years, what stories do we have to tell? Twenty poets have come together to create a special gift for young adults in this unique poetry collection. The Feeling of Sharing a Doughnut features diverse poems exploring the landscape of “emotions,” including the title work alongside others like “The Feeling of Being Loved,” “Summer Feeling,” “The Feeling of Rice Cake and Wheat Cake.” As poet Yoo Heekyung reflects in the preface, perhaps this is because poetry allows us to “travel to tomorrow’s tomorrow’s tomorrow, or measure the vastness of my heart that has grown far beyond my physical height.”

These poems capture emotions and moments that once seemed beyond words. With language both gentle and perceptive, they touch upon our ordinary days that were, in their own way, extraordinary. This collection offers teenage readers the freedom to recognize and embrace their “feelings.” 
Poet Go Seon-kyung, who captured readers’ hearts with her debut poetry collection Shower Gel and Soda Water returns with stories that are more candid and weightier than before. Her new collection, A Tomato Firmer Than the Heart, reveals a powerful spirit that confronts life’s unchanging challenges with courage and sharp wit. 

Go suggests that even “claiming to know when you don’t” is ultimately “a matter of heart.” Despite life’s continuous losses, she offers the courage to embrace tomorrow alongside “the beauty we’ve shared while living” within “a tomato firmer than the heart” (from her poem “The New Year Without Heavy Snow Falls”). 

To those of us seeking strength, the poet offers these words:
“It will be crisp and crunchy.
After all, it is a heart that has weathered winter.”


Translated by Stella Haena Kim
Stella Kim is the recipient of the 2014 LTI Korea Award for Aspiring Translators and the 2016 Korea Times' Modern Korean Literature Translation Award, as well as multiple LTI translation grants and an Academy of Korean Studies grant. She has translated a number of short stories by authors including Gu Byeong-mo, Kang Hwa-Gil, Lee Kiho, Lee Jangwook, and Kim Seong Joong. Her book-length translations include Launch Something! by Bae Myung-hoon (2022, Honford Star) and Painter of the Wind by Lee Jung-myung (co-translated, 2023, Harriett Press). Her translations have appeared in Asymptote, Asia Literary Review, and Korean Literature Now. She currently works as a freelance translator and interpreter while teaching translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

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