Project Tag: Korea (page 1 of 1)

Steam (2009)

‘Steam’ is a series of prose fiction pieces I wrote while living in Gangnam, Seoul, in 2009, where I was undertaking my second Asialink residency.

‘Steam’ is set in a fictional future Korea, and features a young male Korean by the name of Duck-young Moon. The story describes his search for the truth about his grandfather’s disappearance during the Korean War.

Duck young’s quest also features a cast of mostly Korean characters, including Duck-young’s brother, Hyun woo, the elusive Doctor Kang and his assistant, Gilmo.

‘Steam’ is a story which may one day become a novel, but started out as a sequel to ‘Smoke’, a much shorter story about an Australian woman living in Melbourne.

The benefit of the Asialink residency in terms of the writing of ‘Steam’ cannot be over-stated: the characters, places, historical events, incidents and dialogue of the story are all a result of my being able to spend three months living in the place I was describing.

As was the case with ‘Smoke’, the 31 prose pieces that form ‘Steam’ were posted consecutively to this website, without further revision.

While the full text of ‘Smoke’ remains online, I’ve decided to take down ‘Steam’ from this site for the time being, as the text requires a great deal of revision.

For now, you can read what I posted when I finished writing the first draft.

Smoke (2007–08)

In November 2007, while living in Melbourne, I began writing prose poetry pieces about a girl named Jet Fader and her mysterious Korean boyfriend, and posting them, unedited, on this website.

By February 2008, what had started out as a meditation had morphed into a 31-part series with a vague narrative arc and potential for plenty more.

These pieces would later be compiled as ‘Smoke’, and would serve as a foundation of sorts for ‘Steam’, another story featuring the same characters, which I drafted while living in Seoul in 2009.

Morgenland (2007)

Vagabond Press published my chapbook Morgenland in 2007 in a limited edition of 100 copies.

‘Morgenland’ is an archaic German word for ‘the East’ which translates literally as ‘morning land’.

The poems in Morgenland were all written in the Republic of Korea and Japan in 2005–06 as part of an Asialink residency.

 Thanks to the University of Melbourne, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia-Korea Foundation for their generous support.

An earlier version of ‘Alone In An Airport II’ appeared in this chapbook’s companion volume Abendland (2006). ‘Hoju Bihang-gi’ first appeared online in Peril. ‘Back to the Tourist III’ first appeared online in Softblow.

Morgenland front cover.
Image: The original front cover for Morgenland (2007), featuring a custom-made illustration by Kay Orchison.

Thank you Nikki Anderson, Michael Brennan, Keiji Minato, An Sonjae, Sang Kee Park, Joseph, Tan, Larissa Hjorth, Alexie Glass, Moon Sun Choi, Joo Young Lee, Kathleen Asjes, Anouk Hoare, Andrew Cook, Sean Heaney, Hiroshi Sasaki, Steve Riddell, Kevin Puloski, Young Eun Pae and Bridget O’Brien. 

Morgenland (2007)

ALONE IN AN AIRPORT II
JETLAG WORLD
SOUND OF VITALITY
WHITE SPACE
SNOW GROCER
HOJU BIHANG-GI
NAGASAKI CROWS
TRANS*
THE HANOK FIELDS
DRUNK AS KO UN
MAKKOLLI MOON
MOKOCHUKCHA
SAIHOU JODO
IMAGINARY MAO
SNOW SEA SWAN
LONELY PLANET
ICEBERGS
MORIAPO
BACK TO THE TOURIST III

Imaginary Cities: PC Bangs (2005)

In 2005 I travelled to Seoul, Republic of Korea, as an Asialink resident. While I was there I undertook a writing and photography project that involved visiting Korean internet gaming rooms (PC Bangs), writing about an imaginary city in each one and then photographing the PC Bang signage.

I ended up posting 40 short prose fiction pieces to a special PC Bangs blog I set up as part of my residency, as well as a collection of photographs of PC Bang signage.

At the conclusion of the residency, I closed the blog and transferred its contents to the D/DN website. Over the next several years, a number of Imaginary Cities pieces found their way into various journals, but the collection as a whole remains otherwise unpublished.