North Station

Description

"Bae dissolves conventional linear narrative, as though it were impossible for cause and effect to exist concurrently with such repression." Ã Joanna Walsh, The NationalA writer struggles to come to terms with the death of her beloved mentor; the staging of an experimental play goes awry; time freezes for two lovers on a platform, waiting for the train that will take one of them away; a woman living in a foreign country discovers she has been issued the wrong ID.Emotionally haunting and intellectually stimulating, the seven stories in North Station represent the range and power of Bae Suah's distinctive voice and style, which delights in digressions, multiple storylines, and sudden ruptures of societal norms. Heavily influenced by the German authors she's read and translated, Bae's stories combine elements of Korean and European storytelling in a way that's unforgettable and mesmerizing.Bae Suah, one of the most highly acclaimed contemporary Korean authors, has published more than a dozen short story collections and novels, and has won a number of prestigious awards. She has also translated several books from the German, including works by W. G. Sebald, Franz Kafka, and Jenny Erpenbeck. Her novel Nowhere to Be Found was longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize and the Best Translated Book Awards.Deborah Smith has translated two other books by Bae (Recitation and A Greater Music) and won the Man Booker International Prize for her translation of Han Kang's The Vegetarian. She is the founder of Tilted Axis Press.

Promotion info

Distribute galleys to Open Letter's list of 70 key bookstores, which includes Brazos, Green Apple, Three Lives, Volumes, Milkweed, City Lights, Diesel, Elliott Bay, Left Bank, Talking Leaves, Unabridged, McNally Jackson, Powell's, and dozens of others. Approximately 200 advance copies sent to primary publications. This list includes: New York Times, SF Chronicle, LA Times, n+1, New York Review of Books, The Nation, Bookforum, The Believer, Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, Rain Taxi, Time Out New York/Chicago, World Literature Today, Flavorwire, Washington Post, BOMB, Literary Review, Complete Review, Words Without Borders, B&N Review, Harper's, Shelf Awareness, Quarterly Conversation, Chicago Tribune, Typographical Era, Slate, Salon, etc. Also sent to the following trade publications: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, Library Journal. Advance copies also sent to members of the NBCC Award Committee and the Best Translated Book Award Fiction Committee. Giveaway of 25 copies on Goodreads, along with contacting members who have given her other works positive reviews. Promote on Three Percent and on social media via Open Letter's FB & Twitter accounts (over 6,800 likes on FB; over 12,200 followers on Twitter). Also feature heavily on the Three Percent website with a combination of excerpts, interviews, press releases, and review recaps. Ebook available and will be mentioned on all press release materials, Open Letter website, etc. Collaboration with Deep Vellum to jointly promote both Bae Suah titles that are coming out in 2017. Also reach out to Graywolf and Hogarth to see about possibilities of working together to promote the new voices of female Korean fiction (Han Kang, Yujoo Han, and Bae Suah). (Although we all know that Han Kang is overrated and Bae Suah is the best.) Bae Suah will be included in the 2017 PEN World Voices Festival. Through this exposure, we will secure her more interviews in print and online publications, as well as identify a handful of authors and tastemakers who can blurb the collection. Continue to leverage Deborah Smith's Man Booker International Prize (for Han Kang's The Vegetarian) to get additional attention from readers, critics, and booksellers.

Author description

Bae Suah is one of the most highly acclaimed contemporary Korean authors, with over ten short story collections and five novels to her name. She received the Hanguk Ilbo literary prize in 2003, and the Tongseo literary prize in 2004. She also translates from the German.Deborah Smith's literary translations from the Korean include two novels by Han Kang (The Vegetarian and Human Acts), and two by Bae Suah (A Greater Music and Recitation). Smith won the Man Booker International Prize for her translation of The Vegetarian. Recently, she founded Tilted Axis Press to bring more works from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East into English.