She has been translating literary works by notable Korean writers, including Kang Young-sook, Han Yu-joo and Kwon Yeo-sun, for the last 20 years. Janet Hong is a writer and translator based in Vancouver, Canada. The Waiting, her second book to appear in English translation, is forthcoming from Drawn & Quarterly in September 2021. Grass appeared on Best of the Year lists from the New York Times and the Guardian, and received the Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year and the Big Other Book Award for Best Graphic Novel in 2019, and the Harvey Award for Best International Book and the Krause Essay Prize in 2020.

She has written and illustrated the graphic novels Grass, The Waiting, Jiseul, Jun, The Naked Tree, and Alexandra Kim, a Woman of Siberia the autobiographical comic The Song of My Father the three-volume children’s comic Kkokkaengi the picture books The Baby Hanyeo Okrang Goes to Dokdo and A Day with My Grandpa and the children’s book My Mother Kang Geumsun. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim was born in Goheung in Jeolla Province, a county famous for its beautiful mountains and shores. Grass won the Harvey Award for Best International Book, a US award known as the Oscars of comics. Grass is a landmark graphic novel that makes personal the desperate cost of war and the importance of peace. Cartoonist Gendry-Kim’s interviews with Lee become an integral part of Grass, forming the heart and architecture of this powerful non-fiction graphic novel and offering a holistic view of how Lee’s wartime suffering changed her. Grass is painted in a black ink that flows with lavish details of the beautiful fields and farmland of Korea and uses heavy brushwork on the sombre interiors of Lee’s memories. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lee’s strength in overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Beginning in Lee’s childhood, Grass shows the lead up to World War II from a child’s vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Korean folk. Grass is a powerful anti-war graphic novel, offering up firsthand the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the second World War. Grassīy Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translated by Janet Hong

Following the talk, author Kim will respond to questions from the audience. Author Keum Suk Gendry-Kim and translator Janet Hong will give a live virtual talk about her novel ‘Grass’. July’s literature event organised by the KCCUK features a well-received graphic novel.

Grass kim keum suk