Anton Hur Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Anton Hur is a Korean author and a translator known for his work translating Korean literature into English versions.

Born April 7, 1981 in Stockholm, Hur is a Korean citizen. He is known for translating works of authors such as Hwang Sok-yong, Sang Young Park, Kyung-Sook Shin, Bora Chung, and more.

Hur has received a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for his work translating Cursed Bunny, a collection of short stories written by Bora Chung. He also received a PEN Translates grant so that he could translate Kang Kyeong-ae’s The Underground Village.

Born in Stockholm, the author’s father worked for KOTRA, a state-funded organization of the South Korean government specializing in trade and investment. Hur moved around a bit and was growing up in countries such as Ethiopia, Hong Kong, and Thailand. The family would eventually move to and settle down in Korea.

The family did not support his choice to study literature initially, so Hur attended Korea University and studied law and psychology. He would then attend Korea National Open University, where he would study French and then go on to get a master’s degree in English literature while attending Seoul National University.

In 2018 the author started working full-time as a translator, starting with The Court Dancer by Kyung-Sook Shin. Hur also manages Smoking Tigers, a literary translation group. Besides translating Korean edition into English, he has written his own works that have featured in publications such as Words Without Borders, Astra Magazine, Asymptote, Lithub, and more.

Hur received the 13th Hong Jin-Kin Creator Award in 2022, which was created to honor the founder of the newspaper, JoongAng Ilbo. The award is intended to honor Koreans who have made contributions to society, science, technology, culture, and arts.

Anton is openly queer and uses the pronouns he/they. He has written about the subject of sexuality as well as the history of Korean literature including diverse sexuality, and on misery as a constant theme in queer Korean literature. He is married and he and his husband split up their time between Songdon in Incheon and Seoul.

Anton Hur has received many grants and awards over the years and has been a finalist or made the shortlist or a longlist for many awards in addition to receiving his fair share. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award (2023), made the longlist for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award, made the longlist for the 2023 and 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award Barrios Prize, was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and was double-longlisted for the same prize that year, and was a finalist for the 2023 Firecracker Award.

In addition, Hur was the recipient in 2020 of a PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant and PEN Translates award in 2017, as mentioned above. Hur also received the Yumin Award for his contribution to the arts and in 2017 was the recipient of the Daesan Foundation literary translation grant.

He is the recipient of the 2018 GKL Korean Literature Translation Award, and has received multiple grants from the Literary Translation Institute of Korea as well as from the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea and the Arts Council Korea.

Hur has served as a translator-in-residence for the Queen’s College Translation Exchange at the University of Oxford as well as the National Centre for Writing in the United Kingdom.

The author has also served as a judge for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award and the 2025 International Booker Prize. Hur was a judge for the 2021 National Translation Award for Prose as well. He is a member of the United States’ Author’s Guild as well as a member of PEN America and English PEN.

Anton is a co-founder of the Null Subjects Collective and has served as a Korean literature critic on Korea 24 on KBS World Radio and on TBS eFM’s The Bookend.

Toward Eternity is the debut fictional novel from author Anton Hur. If you love a good science fiction story, then check this book out.

When you are a human being in a world where technology is moving so quickly that it seems to be catching up to biology, does it end up changing what it means to be a person? And if not, will it ever get to the point where it does?

In a world set in the not too distant future, there is a new technological therapy that has come on the market that is moving to eradicate cancer, and quickly. It works by replacing all of the cells in the body with nanites, which are android or robot cells that work to cure those with the sickness. Not only that, but once the process is done the patient is left resembling something close to immortal.

Yonghun is a literary researcher who is working to teach an Artificial Intelligence being how it can understand poetry– and in the process makes a machine that is thinking and living. He names it Panit, which means beloved, to pay homage to his husband.

Dr, Beeko holds the patent for nano-therapy technology. When he finds out about Panit, he moves its consciousness into an android body for it to occupy. Now Panit has life and also has freedom.

Panit, Yonghun, and nano-humans start to do well, and even start to replicate themselves. This enhanced development is going to end up taking them to a crossroads as well as up to a choice that could have consequences on an existential level.

What will happen, and will the future of humanity and other sentient beings forever be changed? Read Toward Eternity by Anton Hur to find out!