I recently had the honour of attending Newington College Litfest 2023 at the invitation of Ann Jagger and her unrivalled team of librarians and teachers. Over the course of three exciting days, I delivered eleven talks and workshops for hundreds …
Today I am excited to launch North Lights, a new online journal about North(ern) Korea … its past, present, and future. North Lights will publish exciting new work and share links to the best global scholarship and writing about North Korea. We …
As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage populations worldwide — I write these words in November 2021 — the DPRK (North Korea) continues to insist that it has successfully maintained Covid Zero. As reports from Daily NK and other organisations …
In April I had the pleasure of attending the Newington College Festival of Literature for 2021. It was my first festival appearance since the easing of Covid restrictions in Sydney and a glorious way to celebrate the return of something …
Newington College Festival of Literature for 2021 Read more »
The following speech was delivered online in English and Korean on the 5th of December 2020. The event was entitled: ‘Building Up Cross-Cultural Understanding Through Children’s Literature Between Australia and Korea: 2020’, convened by Dr Hyung-joo Judy Park. Dr Park …
The Book of Beasts: Animal & Human Nature in Children’s Literature Read more »
Russian journalist Natalia Portyakova from Izvestia emailed this week to ask my thoughts about rumoured succession plans in North Korea. An extended version of my response: Kang Pan Sok, Kim Jong Suk, & Kim Yo Jong: Echoes of the Past …
Last week I had the pleasure of answering a short Q&A for Elizabeth Shim about North Korean children’s culture in the Kim Jong Un era, alongside Martin Petersen from the National Museum of Denmark. As usual, my enthusiasm ran over …
Some Questions About North Korean Children’s Culture in the KJU Era Read more »
In a special two-part workshop at Santa Sabina in mid-2017, I had the honour of working with an incredible cohort of Year 10 English students. To begin, I delivered a one hour lecture that offered a brief overview of the …
Dystopian Fiction at Santa Sabina College 2017 Read more »
On the 18th of June 2017, I was invited to speak at the St. James’ Institute in Sydney, alongside the Hon. Michael Kirby, Chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK. The St. James’ Institute …
Writing in the The New York Times, former North Korean counter-intelligence officer and poet Jang Jin-sung observed that his decision to flee the DPRK was precipitated by a realization “that there are two North Koreas: one real and the other a …