Sci-fi writer Kim Cho-yeop explores limits of coexistence at Seoul International Writers’ Festival

Two award-winning science-fiction writers, Korea’s Kim Cho-yeop and America’s Sarah Pinsker, delved into the uncomfortable, often contradictory realities of coexistence, truth and imagination during a book talk as part of the Seoul International Writers’ Festival, Sunday. Kim, one of Korea’s most prominent science fiction writers, imagined dispatchers exploring an Earth blanketed in cosmic dust and encountering humans struggling under attacks from spores born of that dust in her 2023 novel, “Ground Explorers.” The book is yet to be translated into English. Asked about her views on coexistence with others, Kim described it as neither idealized nor easy. “Far from being beautiful, peaceful or soft, coexistence can be quite violent and unpleasant,” she said. “But whether we coexist or not is not a matter of choice. We just have to live together and deal with it. And that’s the bottom line in the story.” Kim made her literary debut in 2017 with “If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light,” a bestselling short story collection that won her the Galaxy Award for Most PopulaWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times