Heinz Insu Fenkl's guest appearances

Heinz Insu Fenkl

The Korea Society

ASIAN AMERICA: THE KEN FONG PODCAST

QWERTY: A Podcast for Writers on How to Live the Writing Life

Judy Joo

Haemin Sunim

Todd Henry

Andrew Friedman

Hooni Kim

Scott Snyder

John Cho

Scott Walker

Walter Russell Mead

Charlotte Cho

Eric Nam

Lee Isaac Chung

John Park

David Yoon

Krys Lee

OwlTail

In Skull Water, Heinz Insu Fenkl has crafted a uniquely autobiographical novel based on his experiences growing up as a German/Korean child in postwar Korea. Incorporating his vast knowledge of Korean folktales, Buddhist karma, daoism, and the ancient Chinese I Ching Book of Changes, Fenkl has created an engaging, unpredictable storyline, and our conversation gave him a chance to reveal how Skull Water came to life.

In Skull Water, Heinz Insu Fenkl has crafted a uniquely autobiographical novel based on his experiences growing up as a German/Korean child in postwar Korea. Incorporating his vast knowledge of Korean folktales, Buddhist karma, daoism, and the ancient Chinese I Ching Book of Changes, Fenkl has created an engaging, unpredictable storyline, and our conversation gave him a chance to reveal how Skull Water came to life.

EP 422: Heinz Insu Fenkl On Skull Water An Autobiographical Novel

Author, translator and professor Heinz Insu Fenkl and host Marion Roach Smith talk about writing from one's own life story and the writing tools available from being an outsider. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life. Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Author, translator and professor Heinz Insu Fenkl and host Marion Roach Smith talk about writing from one's own life story and the writing tools available from being an outsider. Listen in and learn how to live this writing life. The QWERTY podcast is brought to you by the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Project-Thoroughly-Non-Standardized-Writing/dp/0446584843" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing &amp; Life.</a> Read it, and begin your own journey to writing what you know.

Ep. 94 Heinz Insu Fenkl

February 7, 2023 - Twenty-five years in the making, Heinz Insu Fenkl's ambitious, darkly funny, sweeping novel SKULL WATER is a haunting inter-generational coming-of-age story that grapples with identity and displacement in South Korea in the 1950s and 1970s, and reveals a history both countries would prefer to conceal. Born in South Korea to a German father and a Korean mother, Fenkl grew up in Korea, Germany, and the U.S., and his own experience informs this deeply autobiographical novel. SKULL WATER is the story of Insu, the son of a Korean mother and a GI father in the U.S. Army, and the intertwined tale of his Korean Big Uncle, who has been exiled to a mountain cave near the family village to die from a gangrenous foot. Growing up near the army base in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Insu and his two best friends, also "half and halfs," spend their days skipping school, selling scavenged Western goods on the black market, and testing the boundaries between childhood and adulthood. When Insu hears an old legend that water collected from a dead person's skull will cure any sickness, he vows to collect some to heal Big Uncle's mysterious injury. His quest takes him and his friends on a sprawling journey into some of South Korea's darkest corners. Meanwhile, Big Uncle, a geomancer uprooted by the Korean War, has embraced his solitude and fate and attempts to teach his nephew that life is not limited to what we can see or think we know. In his interview with The New Yorker, Fenkl said; "It's a Korean folk belief that stories are meant to be told, and that if one keeps them to oneself and hoards them, there will be terrible consequences." Join us for a conversation with Heinz Insu Fenkl about his latest book. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1649-heinz-insu-fenkl-skull-water

February 7, 2023 - Twenty-five years in the making, Heinz Insu Fenkl's ambitious, darkly funny, sweeping novel SKULL WATER is a haunting inter-generational coming-of-age story that grapples with identity and displacement in South Korea in the 1950s and 1970s, and reveals a history both countries would prefer to conceal. Born in South Korea to a German father and a Korean mother, Fenkl grew up in Korea, Germany, and the U.S., and his own experience informs this deeply autobiographical novel. SKULL WATER is the story of Insu, the son of a Korean mother and a GI father in the U.S. Army, and the intertwined tale of his Korean Big Uncle, who has been exiled to a mountain cave near the family village to die from a gangrenous foot. Growing up near the army base in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Insu and his two best friends, also "half and halfs," spend their days skipping school, selling scavenged Western goods on the black market, and testing the boundaries between childhood and adulthood. When Insu hears an old legend that water collected from a dead person's skull will cure any sickness, he vows to collect some to heal Big Uncle's mysterious injury. His quest takes him and his friends on a sprawling journey into some of South Korea's darkest corners. Meanwhile, Big Uncle, a geomancer uprooted by the Korean War, has embraced his solitude and fate and attempts to teach his nephew that life is not limited to what we can see or think we know. In his interview with The New Yorker, Fenkl said; "It's a Korean folk belief that stories are meant to be told, and that if one keeps them to oneself and hoards them, there will be terrible consequences." Join us for a conversation with Heinz Insu Fenkl about his latest book. For more information, please visit the link below: <a href="https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1649-heinz-insu-fenkl-skull-water" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1649-heinz-insu-fenkl-skull-water</a>

Heinz Insu Fenkl - Skull Water

February 20, 2019 - Korea’s most prized literary masterpiece: a Buddhist journey questioning the illusions of human life—presented in a vivid new translation by PEN/Hemingway finalist Heinz Insu Fenkl Often considered the highest achievement in Korean fiction, The Nine Cloud Dream poses the question: Will the life we dream of truly make us happy? Written in 17th-century Korea, this classic novel’s wondrous story begins when a young monk living on a sacred Lotus Peak in China succumbs to the temptation of eight fairy maidens. For doubting his master’s Buddhist teachings, the monk is forced to endure a strange punishment: reincarnation as the most ideal of men. On his journey through this new life full of material, martial, and sensual accomplishments beyond his wildest dreams, he encounters the eight fairies in human form, each one furthering his path towards understanding the fleeting value of his good fortune. As his successes grow, he comes closer and closer to finally comprehending the fundamental truths of the Buddha’s teachings. Like Hesse’s Siddhartha, The Nine Cloud Dream is an unforgettable tale that explores the meaning of a good life and the virtue of living simply with mindfulness. For more information, please visit the link below: https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1244-the-nine-cloud-dream-with-heinz-insu-fenkl

February 20, 2019 - Korea’s most prized literary masterpiece: a Buddhist journey questioning the illusions of human life—presented in a vivid new translation by PEN/Hemingway finalist Heinz Insu Fenkl Often considered the highest achievement in Korean fiction, The Nine Cloud Dream poses the question: Will the life we dream of truly make us happy? Written in 17th-century Korea, this classic novel’s wondrous story begins when a young monk living on a sacred Lotus Peak in China succumbs to the temptation of eight fairy maidens. For doubting his master’s Buddhist teachings, the monk is forced to endure a strange punishment: reincarnation as the most ideal of men. On his journey through this new life full of material, martial, and sensual accomplishments beyond his wildest dreams, he encounters the eight fairies in human form, each one furthering his path towards understanding the fleeting value of his good fortune. As his successes grow, he comes closer and closer to finally comprehending the fundamental truths of the Buddha’s teachings. Like Hesse’s Siddhartha, The Nine Cloud Dream is an unforgettable tale that explores the meaning of a good life and the virtue of living simply with mindfulness. For more information, please visit the link below: <a href="https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1244-the-nine-cloud-dream-with-heinz-insu-fenkl" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.koreasociety.org/arts-culture/item/1244-the-nine-cloud-dream-with-heinz-insu-fenkl</a>