By Isaac Hamlet
Outside of the countless English novels, essays, poems, and articles you’ll never read, there’s a world of writing — writing you might have loved — waiting behind the barrier of language.
The University of Iowa International Writing Program seeks to make that world of literature just a little closer. “One of the things we try to do is showcase the writers in a variety of settings,” said IWP Director Christopher Merrill. “Our intent is to give the University of Iowa — the Iowa City community — a taste of the diversity of the writing on offer.”
At 5 p.m. Friday, the Shambaugh House will allow those with an interest in international literature to hear readings from Zhou Jianing and Lee Chae Won, from China and South Korea.
Zhou began writing at about the age of 19, and in the 14 years since has written and published seven novels, two short-story collections, and translated a number of American works for Chinese audiences.
“I think translation is a way to practice my language,” she said. “When I do translation, I have to be very careful to trust the words and compare the very, very small differences between these words. I try to keep the origin of the English. I don’t want to create, I just want to do my best to keep the writer’s personality and voice.”
At the reading she’ll perform two scenes between two people — once a couple, now broken up — just before and just after a marathon they’re both obligated to run.
“My sense of [Zhou] is that she’s got a really acute eye for domestic interiors,” Merrill said. “We have a lot of Chinese writers who’ve addressed large historic themes, and she seems to write in a much more day-to-day form that we might imagine from certain American or British writers. She has an eye for what goes on in the well of emotions between two people.”
Lee, meanwhile, writes more dynamic prose. She has a degree in French literature and has published essays, novels, young-adult novels, and short stories such as the one she’ll read.
“It’s about a girl and the Korean War,” Lee said. “When I was a child, my mother always talked about the Korean War with tears in her eyes, so one day, I thought I wanted to be a writer, to write about that story.”
Despite her desire to write novels, Lee found it difficult to go right into long-form composition. So instead, she started by writing essays. To develop her own voice, she copied the work of other writers she admired to get a sense of their style before beginning to shape her own.
While an IWP resident, Lee has worked on a new novel about her father’s family, which she expects to finish before returning home.
“She seems to be one of those people that [while here] is not only getting a lot of work done but also soaking up a lot of impression,” Merrill said.
For Lee, what she most looks forward to is being able to read her work. It’s what’s she’s been waiting for.
Zhou, however, was most excited by something somewhat subtler. As a translator, she has encountered an array of metaphors in the English-language pieces she translates that use symbols and language specific to a particular region or culture, which she didn’t have access to while in China.
“I’ve translated so many short stories, and a lot of them have had images of a walnut tree, and I’ve never seen a walnut tree,” she said. “Yesterday, I went to Hickory Park, and on the way there, there were so many walnut trees. I was very happy to finally see one.”
Where: Shambaugh House
When: 5 p.m. Friday
Cost: Free