How Honford Star brings Korea's weirdest books to life
Published: 10 Apr. 2025, 07:00
Updated: 10 Apr. 2025, 18:01
-
- LEE JIAN
- [email protected]
Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI
[Page-turners]
As translated fiction enters the global limelight, Korean books are being discovered by a wider audience beyond the country's borders. With the help of the massive inventory retained by DB Books, Korea’s oldest independent book dealer, the Korea JoongAng Daily sought out hidden gems on its shelves. In this interview series, we find them for you and talk to the creatives behind them.
![Taylor Bradley, a co-founder of indie publishing house Honford Star [PARK SANG-MOON]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/04/10/0fdbbc85-c130-401d-ab0d-4d0f3d320a74.jpg)
Those familiar with the literary world know what to expect from British indie publisher Honford Star: a bold, concise and poetic style. Its books, all English-translated East Asian literature, are literary but not lofty, nuanced yet daring, and, more often than not, strange.
Bora Chung’s “Cursed Bunny” (2017), translated by Anton Hur and published under Honford Star in 2021, for instance, employs fabulist elements — talking toilets, a cursed lamp shaped like a bunny — to critique capitalism, patriarchy and environmental collapse. Cho Ye-eun's dystopian horror “The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre” (2019), translated by Yewon Jung, imagines a jelly epidemic to convey poignant social commentary on modern Korean society and depict human innocence in the face of violence.
But founders Taylor Bradley and Anthony Bird, self-described as “two white guys,” emphasize that there's no broader social agenda behind their list. “Like the Walt Disney quote, ‘We make movies to make more movies,'” Bradley, 41, told the Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview on Friday, “that’s how we feel about books.”
Bradley, raised in Nebraska, was determined to travel the world after graduating from university. His first location of choice was Korea, and he met Bird, a British native, during a teaching gig in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on the outskirts of Seoul.
The two eventually both took jobs in printing and publishing; Bradley stayed in Korea while Bird moved back to Britain. But they kept in touch, and 10 years later, they reunited at a pub in London and found themselves complaining about their work.
“I told Anthony that I wanted somebody to start a publishing company and give me a job,” Bradley said. “And it was one of those jokes that's not really a joke, like when a guy says to one of his female friends, ‘Wouldn't it be crazy if we were dating?’”
A few months later, Bird did just that. “He didn't really give me a publishing job, though,” Bradley said. “More like a publishing hobby.”
![″Cursed Bunny″ (2017) by Bora Chung and translated by Anton Hur was published under Honford Star in 2021 and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022. [HONFORD STAR]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/04/10/0483c874-0bc6-461b-83fd-7eb43c123107.jpg)
In the growing world of translated fiction, Honford Star is now a quiet force. Lacking the machinery of a corporate house, it is a modest, yet committed operation, almost entirely run by Bradley and Bird. Two International Booker Prize nominees - “Cursed Bunny” and Zou Jingzhi's “Ninth Building” (2010) translated by Jeremy Tiang - are among the 21 titles from Korea, Taiwan, Japan and mainland China that it has published in English since 2017.
Translator Hur has described the operation as “edgy.” Chung, who is set to release her third book with the publisher, “ Red Sword,” in May, calls it “unique, yet refined.” Bradley, for his part, describes the current portfolio as “where genre and literature meet.”
“Semishigure” (1988) by Shuhei Fujisawa, translated by Thomas Harper, for example, is a samurai novel that reflects on loss, duty and integrity. Other titles lean more to the highbrow literary side with historical consciousness, such as Zou's “Ninth Building,” which recounts China’s Cultural Revolution, or Hwang Yeo-jeong's “The Specters of Algeria” (2017), translated by Yewon Jung, which reflects the subversive power of art under Korea’s military dictatorships.
Older books like “Sweet Potato,” a series of short collections written by Kim Dong-in in the 1900s, translated by Grace Jung, and “The Underground Village” (1936) by Kang Kyeong-ae, translated by Anton Hur, are timeless classics whose English text expertly capture their time periods and the surrounding culture.
![″Ninth Building″ (2010) by Zou Jingzhi, translated by Jeremy Tiang, was published under Honford Star in 2022 and longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. [HONFORD STAR]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/04/10/333ca046-c9e3-4dd1-88a4-19c4507a8f7e.jpg)
Bradley, who has a day job, and Bird are in charge of everything, including rights, commissioning translators, marketing and copyediting. They employ one part-time administrator.
Honford Star even designs its own covers. Bradley and Bird commission artists native to each book's country of origin, which isn't typical of Western presses.
“I asked Mr. Bradley why they do that, and he said, ‘So that it doesn’t look like the book is made by two white guys,’” Chung told the Korea JoongAng Daily over the phone.
They are also heavily involved in the process, though. Aesthetics, according to Bradley, helps convey their dedication to publishing. “Our cover designs were one of the things we had going for us since the beginning,” he said. “Because they were good, the books didn’t seem like they were self-published.”
“It was important to both of us that we felt serious from the beginning and not to be like the two kids in trench coats,” Bradley deadpanned. “Though, we have been referred to as that in the past.”
![The English-language cover of ″The Proposal″ (2013) by Korea's sci-fi author Bae Myung-hoon and translated by Stella Kim was published under Honford Star in 2024 [HONFORD STAR]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/04/10/dc8b7f24-1889-4a58-b5fd-1991935e7587.jpg)
Chung, who has known Bradley since their collaboration on the English translation of “Cursed Bunny” in 2021, described him as “an iconic American Midwesterner, in a good way”: simple, practical and realistic. “He doesn’t have grand dreams or ambitions. He just does what he does because he likes literature.”
![″Red Sword″ (2019) by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur, is set for publication in May in English, under Honford Star [HONFORD STAR]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/04/10/970b021e-5063-4052-b1a6-9d7997aa00bd.jpg)
Bradley, indeed, isn't explicitly out to promote East Asian literature or the importance of reading translated books.
“Initially, we wanted to bring a broader diversity of Korean titles into English, besides books like 'The Vegetarian' [2007] or 'Please Look After My Mom' [2008],” Bradley said, sarcastically referring to the titles as “I’m-sad-in-my-apartment” books.
“But this is now much less of a problem because there are so many genre books in Korean being translated to English and published these days.”
![″Your Utopia″ (2021) by Bora Chung and translated by Anton Hur, published under Honford Star in 2024, is currently a nominee for the U.S. Philip K. Dick Award. [HONFORD STAR]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/04/10/aed25c7c-48a9-4392-b3ba-bce7a5e3a176.jpg)
He also isn't drawn to “healing books” — a trending genre of Korean novels evidently laden with themes of comfort, solace and self-discovery — despite their profitable potential.
“The ones that we’ve read, we weren’t very interested in, but they do sell well,” Bradley said. “So joke's on us, I guess.”
“We might be at peak healing,” he added. “Maybe. Maybe I'm just hoping.”
!["Astral Season, Beastly Season" (2014) by Japanese author Tahi Saihate and translated by Kalau Almony was published under Honford Star in 2021. [HONFORD STAR]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/04/10/65d83ebe-3997-4b24-85ca-9d05d223ea16.jpg)
Asked what he most enjoyed about running Honford Star, Bradley answered, “networking.” The response was unexpected at first. Even as I asked it, it felt like a boring question, and I was anticipating something more routine and corporate: discovering new voices, championing books to the world, building a meaningful identity.
“It’s fun to meet and talk to people who know a lot about literature or Korean literature,” Bradley said. “I don’t get to do that in my daily life.”
![The English-language translation of ″Sweet Potato,″ a collection of short stories written in the 1900s by Kim Dong-in, who is a reputed author in the Korean literature scene, was the first book published under Honford Star in 2017. The translation is by Grace Jung. [HONFORD STAR]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/04/10/62406cca-186a-4e2c-979d-fdfb2a902b21.jpg)
Upon reflection, I came to see it as an honest answer, characteristically unpretentious of Bradley, that also reveals his deep curiosity, empathy and high regard for mutual respect.
It is also precisely why he is the right person for the task that Honford Star sets out to do, because publishing translated books with integrity requires more than an eye for quality, but also an inquisitiveness about the unfamiliar. And for Bradley, publishing is a practice of listening.
BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]
As translated fiction enters the global limelight, Korean books are being discovered by a wider audience beyond the country's borders. With the help of the massive inventory retained by DB Books, Korea’s oldest independent book dealer, the Korea JoongAng Daily sought out hidden gems on its shelves. In this interview series, we find them for you and talk to the creatives behind them.
Taylor Bradley, a co-founder of indie publishing house Honford Star [PARK SANG-MOON]
Those familiar with the literary world know what to expect from British indie publisher Honford Star: a bold, concise and poetic style. Its books, all English-translated East Asian literature, are literary but not lofty, nuanced yet daring, and, more often than not, strange.
Bora Chung’s “Cursed Bunny” (2017), translated by Anton Hur and published under Honford Star in 2021, for instance, employs fabulist elements — talking toilets, a cursed lamp shaped like a bunny — to critique capitalism, patriarchy and environmental collapse. Cho Ye-eun's dystopian horror “The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre” (2019), translated by Yewon Jung, imagines a jelly epidemic to convey poignant social commentary on modern Korean society and depict human innocence in the face of violence.
But founders Taylor Bradley and Anthony Bird, self-described as “two white guys,” emphasize that there's no broader social agenda behind their list. “Like the Walt Disney quote, ‘We make movies to make more movies,'” Bradley, 41, told the Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview on Friday, “that’s how we feel about books.”
Bradley, raised in Nebraska, was determined to travel the world after graduating from university. His first location of choice was Korea, and he met Bird, a British native, during a teaching gig in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on the outskirts of Seoul.
The two eventually both took jobs in printing and publishing; Bradley stayed in Korea while Bird moved back to Britain. But they kept in touch, and 10 years later, they reunited at a pub in London and found themselves complaining about their work.
“I told Anthony that I wanted somebody to start a publishing company and give me a job,” Bradley said. “And it was one of those jokes that's not really a joke, like when a guy says to one of his female friends, ‘Wouldn't it be crazy if we were dating?’”
A few months later, Bird did just that. “He didn't really give me a publishing job, though,” Bradley said. “More like a publishing hobby.”
″Cursed Bunny″ (2017) by Bora Chung and translated by Anton Hur was published under Honford Star in 2021 and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022. [HONFORD STAR]
In the growing world of translated fiction, Honford Star is now a quiet force. Lacking the machinery of a corporate house, it is a modest, yet committed operation, almost entirely run by Bradley and Bird. Two International Booker Prize nominees - “Cursed Bunny” and Zou Jingzhi's “Ninth Building” (2010) translated by Jeremy Tiang - are among the 21 titles from Korea, Taiwan, Japan and mainland China that it has published in English since 2017.
Translator Hur has described the operation as “edgy.” Chung, who is set to release her third book with the publisher, “ Red Sword,” in May, calls it “unique, yet refined.” Bradley, for his part, describes the current portfolio as “where genre and literature meet.”
“Semishigure” (1988) by Shuhei Fujisawa, translated by Thomas Harper, for example, is a samurai novel that reflects on loss, duty and integrity. Other titles lean more to the highbrow literary side with historical consciousness, such as Zou's “Ninth Building,” which recounts China’s Cultural Revolution, or Hwang Yeo-jeong's “The Specters of Algeria” (2017), translated by Yewon Jung, which reflects the subversive power of art under Korea’s military dictatorships.
Older books like “Sweet Potato,” a series of short collections written by Kim Dong-in in the 1900s, translated by Grace Jung, and “The Underground Village” (1936) by Kang Kyeong-ae, translated by Anton Hur, are timeless classics whose English text expertly capture their time periods and the surrounding culture.
″Ninth Building″ (2010) by Zou Jingzhi, translated by Jeremy Tiang, was published under Honford Star in 2022 and longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023. [HONFORD STAR]
Bradley, who has a day job, and Bird are in charge of everything, including rights, commissioning translators, marketing and copyediting. They employ one part-time administrator.
Honford Star even designs its own covers. Bradley and Bird commission artists native to each book's country of origin, which isn't typical of Western presses.
“I asked Mr. Bradley why they do that, and he said, ‘So that it doesn’t look like the book is made by two white guys,’” Chung told the Korea JoongAng Daily over the phone.
They are also heavily involved in the process, though. Aesthetics, according to Bradley, helps convey their dedication to publishing. “Our cover designs were one of the things we had going for us since the beginning,” he said. “Because they were good, the books didn’t seem like they were self-published.”
“It was important to both of us that we felt serious from the beginning and not to be like the two kids in trench coats,” Bradley deadpanned. “Though, we have been referred to as that in the past.”
The English-language cover of ″The Proposal″ (2013) by Korea's sci-fi author Bae Myung-hoon and translated by Stella Kim was published under Honford Star in 2024 [HONFORD STAR]
Chung, who has known Bradley since their collaboration on the English translation of “Cursed Bunny” in 2021, described him as “an iconic American Midwesterner, in a good way”: simple, practical and realistic. “He doesn’t have grand dreams or ambitions. He just does what he does because he likes literature.”
″Red Sword″ (2019) by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur, is set for publication in May in English, under Honford Star [HONFORD STAR]
Bradley, indeed, isn't explicitly out to promote East Asian literature or the importance of reading translated books.
“Initially, we wanted to bring a broader diversity of Korean titles into English, besides books like 'The Vegetarian' [2007] or 'Please Look After My Mom' [2008],” Bradley said, sarcastically referring to the titles as “I’m-sad-in-my-apartment” books.
“But this is now much less of a problem because there are so many genre books in Korean being translated to English and published these days.”
″Your Utopia″ (2021) by Bora Chung and translated by Anton Hur, published under Honford Star in 2024, is currently a nominee for the U.S. Philip K. Dick Award. [HONFORD STAR]
He also isn't drawn to “healing books” — a trending genre of Korean novels evidently laden with themes of comfort, solace and self-discovery — despite their profitable potential.
“The ones that we’ve read, we weren’t very interested in, but they do sell well,” Bradley said. “So joke's on us, I guess.”
“We might be at peak healing,” he added. “Maybe. Maybe I'm just hoping.”
"Astral Season, Beastly Season" (2014) by Japanese author Tahi Saihate and translated by Kalau Almony was published under Honford Star in 2021. [HONFORD STAR]
Asked what he most enjoyed about running Honford Star, Bradley answered, “networking.” The response was unexpected at first. Even as I asked it, it felt like a boring question, and I was anticipating something more routine and corporate: discovering new voices, championing books to the world, building a meaningful identity.
“It’s fun to meet and talk to people who know a lot about literature or Korean literature,” Bradley said. “I don’t get to do that in my daily life.”
The English-language translation of ″Sweet Potato,″ a collection of short stories written in the 1900s by Kim Dong-in, who is a reputed author in the Korean literature scene, was the first book published under Honford Star in 2017. The translation is by Grace Jung. [HONFORD STAR]
Upon reflection, I came to see it as an honest answer, characteristically unpretentious of Bradley, that also reveals his deep curiosity, empathy and high regard for mutual respect.
It is also precisely why he is the right person for the task that Honford Star sets out to do, because publishing translated books with integrity requires more than an eye for quality, but also an inquisitiveness about the unfamiliar. And for Bradley, publishing is a practice of listening.
Honford Star books are available on DB Books' official website.
BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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