Heinz Insu Fenkl (born 1960) is an author, editor, translator, and folklorist. His autobiographical novel ''Memories of My Ghost Brother'' is widely taught at colleges and universities. He is also an expert on Asian American and Korean literature, including
North Korean comics and literature.
Academic work
Heinz Insu Fenkl is a Professor of
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
at
SUNY New Paltz
The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an ac ...
, where he currently teaches creative writing in addition to courses on Asian and Asian American literature and film. He was a member of the editorial board for Harvard University's ''Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture'' from its inception until 2017. He previously served as coordinator of the Creative Writing Program and was director of The Interstitial Studies Institute at SUNY New Paltz. He is currently a member of the editorial board fo
SIJO: an international journal of poetry and song
He has taught a wide array of creative writing, folklore, literature, and Asian and Asian American studies courses at
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
,
Eastern Michigan University
Eastern Michigan University (EMU, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern), is a public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School, the school was the fourth normal school established in the United Sta ...
, and
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...
. He was also a core faculty member for the Milton Avery M.F.A. Program at
Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...
and has taught at
Yonsei University
Yonsei University (; ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea. As a member of the "SKY" universities, Yonsei University is deemed one of the three most prestigious institutions in the country. It is particularly respected in the ...
in Korea.
Works
Books:
''Cathay: translations and transformations'' (Codhill Press, 2007)
''Korean Folktales'' (Bo-Leaf Books, 2007)
''Memories of My Ghost Brother'' (Dutton, 1996: Bo-Leaf Books, 2005)
Edited volumes:
''Kori: The Beacon Anthology of Korean American Literature''. co-edited with Walter K. Lew (Beacon, 2002)
''Century of the Tiger: 100 Years of Korean Culture in America'', co-edited with Jenny Ryun Foster and Frank Stewart (University of Hawaii Press, 2002)
Fenkl also edited a special section in Harvard University's Azalea, Volume 2, 2009 on North Korean Literature and coedited a special section in Azalea, Volume 7, 2014 on Korean American Literature.,
Translations:
''The Nine Cloud Dream'' by Kim Man-jung (Penguin Classics, 2019)
''Tales from the Temple'' by Musan Cho Oh-hyun (Codhill Press, 2019)
''The Red Years: Forbidden Poems from Inside North Korea'' by Bandi (Zed Books, 2019)
''For Nirvana: 108 Zen Poems'' by Musan Cho Oh-hyun (Columbia University Press, 2016)
''Meeting with My Brother'' by Yi Mun-yol (Weatherhill Books on Asia, 2017)
A section of Fenkl's translation of the Kim Man-jung's 17th-century Buddhist masterpiece, ''The Nine Cloud Dream'', also appeared in ''AZALEA'', Volume 7, 2014. Fenkl's translation of the novel was published by Penguin Classics in 2019. ''Publishers Weekly'' writes that "Man-Jung’s tale is a hypnotic journey, a scholarly, instructive Buddhist bildungsroman set across Tang dynasty China, and in Insu Fenkl’s skilled translation, a glimpse into the rich crossroads of religions and society...".
Short Fiction:
, Five arrows
, 2015
,
This short story is from Fenkl's novel ''Skull Water.''
Personal
Fenkl received his A.B. in English from
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
and his M.A. in English/Creative Writing from the
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
. He was a Fulbright Scholar in South Korea, where he began a project collecting narrative folktales and studied literary translation. He was also co-director of the Fulbright Summer Seminar in Korean History and Culture. Fenkl studied in the Ph.D. Program in Cultural Anthropology at University of California, Davis. His areas of specialization were shamanism, East Asian narrative folklore, and ethnographic theory. Fenkl was raised in Korea and (in his later years) Germany and the United States. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife and daughter.
External links
Official homepageTo the Best of Our Knowledge - PRI interview on North Korean Comics''The New Yorker'' interview on translating Yi Mun-yol''The New Yorker'' interview on writing "Five Arrows"''The Korea Society'' podcast on translating ''The Nine Cloud Dream''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenkl, Heinz Insu
Fenkl, Heinz, Insu
Bard College faculty
Mythographers
1960 births
Living people
American writers of Korean descent
Vassar College alumni
University of California, Davis alumni
State University of New York at New Paltz faculty
Eastern Michigan University faculty
American translators
Korean–English translators
The New Yorker people
Comics scholars
Koreanists
Fulbright alumni