"When I was writing, I wrote it without any thought. I did 

n't have any great intentions..."



Jeong Jeong-ra (46), who was selected as one of the 6 finalists for the British Booker Prize for her novel 'Cursed Bunny', opened today (14th). He spoke bluntly at a press conference.



'Cursed Rabbit', written by Jeong Bo-ra and translated into English by Anton Heo (41, Jeong-beom Heo), was nominated for the International Category of the British Booker Prize, one of the world's three major literary awards, along with the Nobel Prize for Literature and the French Goncourt Prize.



'Curse Rabbit' is a collection of short stories containing 10 stories about curses and revenge by combining science fiction and horror. 



With the selection of nominations, the Booker Foundation introduced, "Writer Jeong Jeong-ra uses fantastic and surreal elements to tell the horrific horror and cruelty of modern patriarchy and capitalism."

The special reason for this 'Booker Award Finalist' is that they first discovered the true face of a Korean writer abroad and 'reversely exported' it to the Korean literary world.



The fact that it is information that raises expectations for the second Booker Prize in Korea after Han Kang, who won the Booker Prize in 2016, was a writer close to 'unknown'.



Han Kang novelist, who previously won the Booker Prize International, was relatively famous in Korea, while Jeong Jeong-ra was a relatively unknown author. 



Anton Heo (Heo Jeong-beom), a translator who translated this book into English, emphasized its meaning as "proof of the literary quality of Korean genre literature."



He said, "As soon as I read it, it seemed like it would work in the English-speaking world." Jeong Bo-ra's sentences contain beautiful, scary, and humorous emotions. The combination of opposing emotions is easier to translate into English. It was a dreamlike translation. Until I die. I want to translate Jeong Bo-ra's work." 



Meanwhile, 'Cursed Rabbit' was sold to seven countries including the UK, China, Spain, Indonesia, Turkey, Poland and Japan before being nominated for the Booker Prize on the 11th of last month. Brazil, Albania, Romania, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Italy, and Germany have all signed additional distribution rights with nine countries.



The final winners of the Booker Prize International will be announced on May 26, and the winning writers and translators will share a prize of £50,000 (approximately KRW 80 million).



This is a 'news pick'.



(Photo = Yonhap News)