university of hawai‘i at mānoa

Colloquium: The Making of a Korean American Writer in Hawai‘i

Ty Pak

Thursday, April 24, 2008
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Center for Korean Studies Auditorium

Born in Korea in 1938, critically acclaimed Korean American writer Ty Pak lived through his country’s liberation from Japan in 1945, its division under U.S. and Soviet occupation, and the trauma of the Korean War, 1950–53, during which his father died. After getting his law degree at Seoul National University in 1961, he worked as a reporter for the English-language dailies, Korean Republic and Korea Times, until 1965, when he came to the United States and got his Ph.D. in English at Bowling Green State University in 1969. After a year’s postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, he taught in the English Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa from 1970 to 1987, when he took early retirement to devote himself to writing.

His published fiction has been widely anthologized and includes Guilt Payment (1983), Cry Korea Cry (1999), and Moonbay (1999).  His 1961 book, A Korean Decameron, is being reprinted with a grant from Harvard University. His scholarly articles and monographs have appeared in many journals such as Language, Lingua, Semiotica, and Journal of Formal Logic.

Married and with three children, Ty Pak now lives in Honolulu.

This event is co-sponsored by the College of Language, Linguistics and Literature and the Department of English. 

Center for Korean Studies Colloquia

This event is free and open to the public. The Center for Korean Studies is located at 1881 East-West Road on the UH Mānoa campus. Parking is available mauka of the CKS building for a $3 charge.

For further information, including arrangements for access for the handicapped, call 956-7041.