I am a writer, editor, and translator from South Korea, now living in Berlin.

I hold a BA in English Literature and a BA in French from Ohio Wesleyan University, and an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin.

My essays, stories, poetry, and translations have been published in online and print journals in Korea, Ireland, Germany, and the U.S.. My essay "Ten Thousand Scherzos" was selected a finalist for The Iowa Review Contest for Nonfiction in 2018, and my essay "Memory Collage 1" was selected an honorary mention for The Kenyon Review Contest for Short Nonfiction in 2019.

The Dublin Review published my essay “Seven Days” in 2021 and selected it for their 14-year anniversary anthology, Show Your Work: Essays from The Dublin Review, published in 2022. My translation of Pak Kyongni’s short story “The Age of Darkness” appears in the collection The Age of Doubt, published by Honford Star in 2022. See my detailed publication list below.

I am a prose editor for The Willowherb Review, a journal of nature writing for writers of color. I am a member of Smoking Tigers, a Korean-English literary translators’ collective.

I am a 2025–2026 Korean mentee for the Emerging Translators Mentorship, offered by the National Writing Centre.

My co-translation of Kim Haeja’s poetry with Deborah Smith merely mighty grass (working title) has been supported by LTI Korea and is scheduled for publication in 2027 by the Poetry Translation Centre in London.

I have a special interest in translating women writers, nonfiction, classics and modern classics.

I offer classes, mentorships, workshops, and manuscript consultations for writers and translators of all backgrounds, at all stages of their practice.

I am working on my debut collection of essays.

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Contact

dasom.yang96@gmail.com
+49 0160 9190 5436

Publications

  • merely mighty grass by Kim Haeja, co-translation with Deborah Smith, Poetry Translation Centre (forthcoming in 2027), print

  • “Don’t Ask Me When the Script Will Be Ready; I Don’t Have an Answer for You” by YSRA, translation, Korean Literature Now, print

  • AN IRON IN THE FORM OF A RADIO, A KETTLE IN THE FORM OF AN IRON, AND A RADIO IN THE FORM OF A KETTLE, translation, workroom press (2024), print

  • “Seven Days”, essay, Show Your Work: Essays from The Dublin Review (2022), print

  • “The Age of Darkness” by Pak Kyong-ni, translation, Honford Star (September 2022), print 

  • “Jangmi”, essay, Channel Magazine (Issue 5, Autumn 2021), print

  • “Seven Days”, essay, The Dublin Review (Issue 84, Autumn 2021), print

  • “Essays on Modern Love”, essay, Tolka (Issue 1, Spring 2021), print

  • “Enemy Green”, essay, The Willowherb Review (Issue 2, Spring 2020), online

  • “Free Meal” by Kim Haeja, translation, chogwa zine (February 2020), online

  • “Snail” by Choi Jin-young, translation, chogwa zine (August 2019), online

  • “Her Name Was Jangmi”, poem, harana poetry (June 2019), online

  • “Herakles was an important Greek hero and the elimination of Geryon constituted one of His celebrated Labors: A Cento” and other poems, stadtsprachen magazine (April 2019), online

  • “Genetically Speaking”, poem, The North by Poetry Business (January 2019), print

  • “Ten Thousand Scherzos”, essay, The Tangerine (Spring 2018), print

  • A Review of ‘The Vegetarian’, review, College Green (Winter 2017/18), print

Education

  • Fully funded participant, International Literary Translation & Creative Writing Summer School: Korean (Mentor: Anton Hur), British Centre for Literary Translation (Norwich, England), 2023

  • Fully funded participant, The Stinging Fly Summer School—Nonfiction strand (Dublin, Ireland), 2023

  • Participant, International Literary Translation & Creative Writing Summer School: Korean (Mentor: Deborah Smith), British Centre for Literary Translation (Norwich, England), 2019

  • MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, Ireland): 2017

  • BA in English Literature, BA in French from Ohio Wesleyan University, graduated cum laude (Delaware, Ohio, USA): 2013

Residencies, Readings, Engagements

  • in which languages does Berlin write?, Reading, Berlin, 3.7.2025

  • Salon Weissensee #3: Re:Nature—Landscapes of Memory, Reading, Berlin, 4.7.2024

  • Climate Cultures Festival: Climate Writing in Taiwan with Jessica J. Lee, Moderation, Berlin, 28.8.2022

  • in tandem: live literature, Reading, Berlin, 7.7.2022

  • Launch of Channel: Issue 5, Reading (26:19 - 28:13), Online, 11.11.2021

  • Launch of Tolka: Issue One, Reading, Online, 23.05.2021

  • Kendal Mountain Literature Festival, Panel discussion, Online, 22.11.2020

  • Vermont Studio Center, Residency (Selected and offered scholarship, unable to attend due to expanses), Vermont, USA, 4.8 – 30.8.2019

  • FERNOSTBERLIN. PARATAXE SYMPOSIUM V. PANEL III: BERLINASIA - FASZINATION UND VERFLECHTUNG, Reading, Berlin, 22.05.2019

  • Literally Speaking, Reading, Berlin, 15.04.2019

  • Fiction Canteen, Reading, Berlin, 15.11.2018

  • Can Serrat Artist Residency, Residency, Can Serrat, September 2018

Editorial Work

  • Freelance Editor, Proofreader, Sensitivity Reader, KR<>EN Translator, 2013 - Current

  • Editorial Intern, Dalkey Archive Press (Dublin, April 2018 – September 2018)

  • Prose Editorial Assistant, The Willowherb Review (Online, Fall 2018 – Present)