Sora Kim-Russell

Kim-Russell is a biracial Korean-American. She began formally studying Korean in university and worked for a Korean studies journal in Seoul, editing translation. While working as an editor, she entered The Korea Times' literature translation contest in 2005 and won for poetry, and won the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) contest for new translators in 2007.{{Cite web|title=The Bucket List: Translator Interview: Sora Kim-Russell|url=http://www.thebucketlistbookblog.com/2015/01/translator-interview-sora-kim-russell.html|access-date=2021-10-06|website=The Bucket List}} As a translator, she has taught literary translation courses at Ewha Womans University's Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, LTI Korea, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and served as a mentor for the ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program.{{Cite web|title=Art and Politics of Translation: Behind the Scenes with Sora Kim-Russell|url=https://www.koreanculture.org/education-literature/2019/11/5/art-and-politics-of-translation-behind-the-scenes-with-sora-kim-russell|access-date=2021-10-06|website=Korean Cultural Center New York|date=5 November 2019 |language=en-US}} She is a member of the translation collective Smoking Tigers, whose name is derived from the stock phrase of Korean folktales 호랑이 담배 피우던 시절에 (Long, long ago, back when tigers used to smoke tobacco), for Korean-to-English translators, which includes authors and translators such as Sung Ryu, Stella Kim, Soje, and Deborah Smith.{{Cite web|last=rcldaum|date=2019-02-07|title=Collective Conversations: An Interview with the Smoking Tigers|url=https://literarytranslators.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/focus-on-literary-translation-collectives-an-interview-with-the-smoking-tigers/|access-date=2021-10-08|website=ALTA Blog|language=en}}

Kim-Russell has often commented on challenges in Korean translation, namely of certain untranslatable words and concepts in Korea, such as han, dapdaphada (a physical sensation of suffocation caused by feeling frustrated or unable to speak or act freely), and eogulhada (to feel that something is unfair or undeserved), and a perception of 'vagueness' in Korean writing because of the relatively sparse nature of Korean compared to English as a topic-prominent language with minimal pronouns.{{Cite web|date=2017-04-05|title=Why So Serious? Translating Korean Satire and Comedy|url=https://www.catranslation.org/blog-post/why-so-serious-translating-korean-satire-and-comedy/|access-date=2021-10-06|website=Center for the Art of Translation {{!}} Two Lines Press|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2019-03-07|title=The Implicit I: Contesting Ambiguity in Korean Literature|url=https://aaww.org/the-implicit-i-contesting-ambiguity-in-korean-literature/|access-date=2021-10-06|website=Asian American Writers' Workshop|language=en-US}} Her essays on topics including mixed-race Koreans, LGBTQ representation in Korean film, and North Korea have been published by a variety of publications.{{Cite web|title=Read – KUMFA|url=https://kumfa.or.kr/read/|access-date=2021-10-06|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Kim-Russell|first=Sora|title=LGBT Korea on Film: Anonymity and Representation|url=https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/lgbt-korea-on-film-anonymity-and-representation|access-date=2021-10-06|website=Words Without Borders|date=20 June 2011 }}

• {{Citation|last=Bae|first=Suah|title=Nowhere to Be Found|year=2015|place=Seattle|publisher=Amazon Crossing|isbn=9781477827550|author-link=Bae Suah}}
• {{Citation|last=Bae|first=Yong-joon|title=A Journey in Search of Korea's Beauty|year=2010|place=Seoul|publisher=Hollym|isbn=9781565913073|author-link=Bae Yong-joon}}
• {{Citation|last=Gong|first=Ji-young|title=Our Happy Time|year=2014|place=New York|publisher=Marble Arch Press|isbn=9781476730455|author-link=Gong Ji-young}}
• {{Citation|last=Hwang|first=Sok-yong|title=Princess Bari|year=2015|publisher=Periscope|isbn=9781859641743|author-link=Hwang Sok-yong}}
• {{Citation|last=Hwang|first=Sok-yong|title=At Dusk|year=2017|place=Melbourne|publisher=Scribe|isbn=9781947534667|author-link=Hwang Sok-yong}}
• {{Citation|last=Hwang|first=Sok-yong|title=Familiar Things|year=2017|place=Victoria, Australia|publisher=Scribe|isbn=9781947534049|author-link=Hwang Sok-yong}}
• {{Citation|last=Hwang|first=Sok-yong|title=The Prisoner|year=2021|place=New York|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781839760839|author-link=Hwang Sok-yong}}
• {{Citation|last=Hwang|first=Sok-yong|title=Mater 2-10|year=2023|place=Melbourne|publisher=Scribe|isbn=9781922586940|author-link=Hwang Sok-yong|date=|translator-last=Kim-Russell|translator-first=Sora|translator-last2=Bae|translator-first2=Youngjae Josephine}}
• {{Citation|last=Jeon|first=Sungtae|title=Wolves|year=2017|place=Buffalo, New York|publisher=White Pine Press|isbn=9781945680014|author-link=Jeon Sungtae}}
• {{Citation|last=Jeon|first=Sungtae|title=Old Wrester|year=2019|place=Norwich|publisher=Strangers Press|isbn=9781911343592|author-link=Jeon Sungtae}}
• {{Citation|last=Kim|first=Bo-young|title=On the Origin of Species and Other Stories|year=2021|place=Los Angeles|publisher=Kaya Press|isbn=9781885030719|author-link=Kim Bo-young}}
• {{Citation|last=Kim|first=Un-su|title=The Plotters|year=2019|place=New York|publisher=Anchor Books|isbn=9780525564805|author-link=Kim Un-su}}
• {{Citation|last=Pyun|first=Hye-young|title=The Hole|year=2018|place=New York|publisher=Arcade Publishing|isbn=9781628729917|author-link=Pyun Hye-young}}
• {{Citation|last=Pyun|first=Hye-young|title=City of Ash and Red|year=2020|place=New York|publisher=Arcade Publishing|isbn=9781950691098|author-link=Pyun Hye-young}}
• {{Citation|last=Pyun|first=Hye-young|title=The Law of Lines|year=2020|place=New York|publisher=Arcade Publishing|isbn=9781948924962|author-link=Pyun Hye-young}}
• {{Citation|last=Shin|first=Kyung-sook|title=I'll Be Right There|year=2013|place=New York|publisher=Other Press|isbn=9781590516737|author-link=Shin Kyung-sook}}

• 2016: Nominated for PEN Translation Prize for Nowhere to Be Found by Bae Suah
• 2016: Nominated for Best Translated Book Award for Nowhere to Be Found by Bae Suah
• 2017: Winner of 2017 Shirley Jackson Award for The Hole by Pyun Hye-Young
• 2018: Winner of 2018 GKL Korean Literature Translation Awards for The Plotteres by Kim Un-su
• 2019: Longlisted for 2019 International Booker Prize for At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong
• 2019: Winner of 2019 LTI Korea Translation Award for The Plotters by Kim Un-su
• 2020: Longlisted for 2020 PEN Translation Prize for At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong{{Cite web|title=At Dusk longlisted for the 2020 PEN Translation Prize {{!}} News {{!}} Scribe US|url=https://scribepublications.com/news-events/news/at-dusk-longlisted-for-the-2020-pen-translation-prize|access-date=2021-10-08|website=scribepublications.com|language=en-US}}
• 2021: Longlisted for 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature for On the Origin of Species and Other Species by Kim Bo-young, translated with Joungmin Lee Comfort{{Cite news|authorlink=Petra Mayer|last=Mayer|first=Petra|date=2021-09-17|title=Here Are The Longlist Nominees For This Year's National Book Awards|language=en|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/09/15/1037097073/national-book-award-longlists|access-date=2021-10-06}}
• 2024: Shortlisted for 2024 International Booker Prize with Youngjae Josephine Bae for Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong{{Cite news |last=Marshall |first=Alex |date=9 April 2024 |title=Heartbreak and Family Love on the International Booker Prize Shortlist |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/09/arts/international-booker-prize-nominees.html |access-date=10 April 2024 |work=The New York Times}}

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Category:21st-century American translators

Category:1976 births

Category:Living people

Category:American writers of Korean descent

Category:Literary translators

Category:Korean–English translators

Category:Stanford University alumni

Category:21st-century American women writers