By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Emilia Kircheva from Bulgaria

Bulgarian students of Korean studies and others met Korean author Lee Kiho on May 21 at the Sofia Metropolitan Library in the Bulgarian capital. Invited by the Center for Korean Studies at Sofia University and the library's Korea Corner, Lee held two events in the Eastern European country with support from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.

In an open lecture, Lee explained his creative process, saying literature must portray life as it is and that reality is an infinite source of inspiration for every writer. Writing is similar to acting, he added, in the sense that a writer has to think and talk like his characters and must reflect their traits into the images he or she creates. Thus being a writer affords the opportunity to live as many lives as the number of his or her characters, he said.

The author also shared personal details of his daily life, like how he considers night the most productive part of his day, his lack of a television and his practice of spending months in a small village without internet and modern forms of communication when writing.

The audience later asked Lee for his opinions on topics such as love, inspiration, modern Korean TV dramas and K-pop. He jokingly said he gets inspired from experiences such as visiting Bulgaria, and that he could later write a short story about that day.

After the lecture, the writer visited the library's Korea Corner, looked around and left a message in his book "So Far, And Yet So Near."

The next day, Lee held a workshop for Bulgarian students of Korean studies, with the discussion revolving around the Korean-to-Bulgarian translation of his short story “Kwon Sun-chan and Nice People.” The students asked him questions on the process of translating his works into other languages.

wisdom117@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. This group has members from all around the world who share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.