A Writer's Guide to Seoul

The Seoul Metropolitan Library stands on Sejong-daero, and its website has an English interface. On the 4th floor, the Global Collections room holds books in English and other languages, with foreign newspapers and magazines. Embassies and cultural centers from 60 countries have donated materials to it. Donated materials are read in the room only. The library is closed Mondays.

The National Library of Korea is open to anyone 16 or older with a one-day or regular card, and its materials are read in the building. The Literature Room on the 2nd floor includes a Modern Literature room. You can filter the catalogue for English-language holdings. Its humanities program includes book talks with poets.

The National Assembly Library admits anyone 18 or older. Researchers can use its Master and Doctorate Theses Room, and there is a Periodical Room as well. Materials are read on site. Exit 1 of National Assembly Station on Line 9 is three minutes' walk away.

Members of the public can read at Korea University Library by showing photo ID and signing the visitor log for a pass. Visitors may read every part of the collection. That includes the Rare Book Reading Room on the 2nd floor of the Main Library, which holds over 100,000 old books with a full-text database.

YOUR-MIND sells independent publications from Korea and abroad, along with design books. It runs workshops, and its site keeps an events board. The shop is closed Tuesdays.

Mediabus runs The Book Society from a third floor in Namchang-dong. Its shelves lean toward art and design, with philosophy and literature alongside, including books from international presses such as Sternberg Press and Verso. Book talks and launches happen here.

Hongik Mungo is a family-run bookstore just outside Sinchon Station on Line 2. Try the Secret Book table. Staff choose books by theme and wrap them in opaque paper, with a recommendation note and a passage written on the outside.

Book Ikda is a bar and bookstore on a second floor in an alley near Hongdae's nightlife district. Every book on its floor-to-ceiling shelves is for sale, and those with a black sticker can be read on site. The room stays quiet. The owner will suggest a cocktail or a whisky to match what you are reading. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Chaekbonyang is a one-room hanok bookshop in the alleys of Seongbuk-gu, and its books and memorabilia are all about cats. Two resident cats roam the room. There are six seats, and guests take off their shoes. It is open Thursday to Sunday afternoons.

Jongno-gu's literature library is a hanok built into the slope of Inwangsan. Readers sit on the wooden floor of the main hall beside an artificial waterfall. The Yoon Dong-ju Literary Museum is a short walk away.

Anthracite's Seogyo café occupies an old mansion in Mangwon-dong, with long windows and a garden. The company describes the room as calm, with machine noise kept out and the light kept moderate. It is open daily until late evening. The Hapjeong branch, on the 3rd floor at 10 Tojeong-ro 5-gil, fills a former shoe factory.

Fritz Coffee Company sells its own coffee beans and runs a café in Dohwa-dong. If you are working near Seochon, its Dongnimmun branch is on the 1st floor at 24-1 Tongil-ro 12-gil in Jongno-gu.

This café and reading room occupies a former police guard post at the foot of Inwangsan, and its observation deck overlooks the city. Trees surround it. It is open daily, and weekends can be crowded.

My Secret Den is a book café overlooking Deoksugung Palace, and guests keep silent there until 5 p.m. Typing is allowed. It serves food and drinks, and reservations are required.

DOORE, on the 1st floor of the museum's Education Building, serves Korean food, from light meals to course menus. TERAROSA COFFEE sits next to the lobby of the Exhibition Building. Browse the Art Book Shop on the 1st floor for MMCA catalogues and art books. Take exit 1 from Anguk Station on Line 3.

Pagoda Restaurant by Doore sits on the 1st floor of the East Wing, behind the Ten-story Stone Pagoda from Gyeongcheonsa Temple, and it opens for breakfast. Beside the Reflecting Pond, Mirror Pond Restaurant serves Italian food. On Wednesdays and Saturdays the food court in the West Exhibition Building stays open into the evening. You can also eat at four outdoor rest areas on the grounds.

Korean Restaurant DAM is on the 1st floor of the Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum building. Grissino serves Italian food on the 2nd floor of the Opera House and is closed Mondays. At Vitamin Station there is a Terarosa Coffee, and Daihan Music sells scores and music books.

The Literature Translation Institute of Korea runs a Translation Academy that trains literary translators in a Regular Course and a Night Course. Emerging translators can join its Translation Atelier seminars. Graduates get help with internships and translation work. Online, the institute's Digital Library of Korean Literature catalogues Korean literature in translation, with eBooks and a writers' index.

The Seoul International Writers' Festival brings international writers to the city for conversations with Korean authors. It runs as part of the Korea Literature Festival, which the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism holds with LTI Korea and other partners.

The Korean Publishers Association hosts the Seoul International Book Fair at COEX, and the fair calls itself Korea's largest. Publishers and authors meet readers there at keynote talks and exhibitions. A copyright center handles rights exchange. A fellowship program brings in international publishing professionals, and a guest-of-honor country has its own program.

The Daesan Foundation supports Korean literature at home and abroad through the Daesan Literary Awards and creative writing funds. It runs the Seoul International Forum for Literature and a public conversation series with visiting world writers. It also publishes the quarterly Daesan Munhwa.

The SNU Asia Center studies Asia through regional centers that run from Northeast to West Asia, with thematic programs on subjects such as migration and the Korean Wave. Visiting researchers come through its Visiting Scholar Program and Visiting Scholar Fellowship. The center hosts talks and lectures. Its journal, Asia Review, appears three times a year.

The Academy of Korean Studies, south of Seoul in Seongnam, includes the Graduate School of Korean Studies. Its Korean Studies Promotion Service runs a grants competition for Korean studies abroad.

The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch holds lectures on Korea, and past ones are in an online video archive. Its clubs include a Korean Literature Club. The society keeps a library and an e-book library, and it publishes the journal Transactions of the RAS Korea Branch.

Fulbright Korea runs Fulbright exchanges between Korea and the United States. Its U.S. Scholar Program brings American academics and artists to teach or do research at a Korean host institution. One award is a Distinguished Scholar post at Yonsei University, open to every academic discipline.

Seoul National University Press publishes academic books in subjects from philosophy and religion to the sciences and technology. Its list also includes foreign-language books and Korean-language textbooks.

This IEEE Computer Society journal publishes research in computer vision and pattern recognition, with particular emphasis on machine learning for pattern analysis. Its editor-in-chief, Kyoung Mu Lee, is at Seoul National University. Preparing an article for IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence

The Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology is an official publication of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers, published by Springer. Its scope runs from energy grids and electric machines to electrical facilities. Editor-in-chief Hwachang Song is at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. Preparing an article for the Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology

Journal of Korean Religions publishes peer-reviewed English-language research on Korean religions from across the humanities and social sciences. Launched in 2010 by the Institute for the Study of Religion at Sogang University, it is edited at Sogang University and the University of British Columbia and published by University of Hawai'i Press. Preparing an article for Journal of Korean Religions

The Korea Times, Seoul's English-language daily, gives these awards for English translations of contemporary Korean fiction and poetry. Translations of drama are eligible too. The awards invite translators worldwide.

The Daesan Foundation gives grants to translate Korean literary works into any language. The same program funds research on Korean literature and the publication of translated works.

Foreign nationals and overseas residents can apply for fellowships in the Translation Academy's Regular Course, which trains literary translators from Korean.

The Korea Foundation brings overseas scholars in Korean studies and Korea-related humanities and social sciences to Korea for on-site research with access to resource materials. Recent PhDs with Korea-related topics can apply for its Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research. The Foundation's Seoul office is the KF Global Center at 26 Euljiro 5-gil in Jung-gu.

Students at Seoul National University will find grants and writing resources gathered on this page.

This page lists grants and writing resources for Korea University students.

Sungkyunkwan University students can find grants and writing help here.

Hanyang University students will find grants and writing resources collected on this page.

This page gathers grants and writing resources for students at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Corners Printing is a risograph studio in Paju Book City, about 30 km northwest of central Seoul. It takes orders from Korea and abroad by email at printing@corners.kr. Send files as separate grayscale PDFs, one for each color layer. The studio prints at A2 and A3 on papers that include newsprint and Munken, and its own books show flat binding and thread-sewn sections.