Korean literature and Korean culture
Barbara J Zitwer is the owner, President of her agency established twenty two years ago specializing in global literature. She was the first agent to bring Korean literature to the attention to the world with Kyung sook Shin’s Man Asian Prize winning Please Look After Mom, Han Kang’s Booker Prize The Vegetarian, Ko-eun Yun’s CWA Award Winning The Disaster Tourist, Jung Myung Lee’s Premio Bancarella Prize, as well as introducing many other Korean authors including Hye Young Pyun, Un su Kim, Seo Mi Ae, Ji Young Gong, Young ha Kim, Geum-yi Lee, Sunmi Hwang,You Jeong Jeong,Yeo-sun Kwon and many others.
She also represents award winning authors from Australia, Germany, United States, Japan, Turkey and many other countries. She is a maverick at discovering new authors and bringing under represented voices to the notice of the world including works by Ensaf Haidar, wife of imprisoned Saudi Activist Raid Badawai, Bandi, North Korean writer, Frida Khalaf who escapes Isis and lived to write about it as well as other free speech activists. Barbara was awarded the International Agent of the Year Award at the 2016 London Book Fair. She is the first and pioneering the marketing and selling of Korean literature to Hollywood and the development of Korean books to film globally such as with The Plotters by Un su Kim, The Only Child by Seo Mi Ae, Please Look After Mom by Kyung sook Shin, Perfect Happiness by You Jeong Jeong , The Disaster Tourist by Ko-eun Yun and others..
In her own right, she is a novelist and author of The JM Barrie Ladies Swimming Society, publishing in fourteen countries and also in Korea, and currently in development with Barnaby Thompson’s Fragile Films in the UK as a feature film. She has published two other novels and her play about bestselling maverick writer Jacqueline Susan, Paper Doll, has been produced throughout the United States starring Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham and Emmy Award and Golden Globe Winner, Marlo Thomas.
Barbara is currently developing an educational program for Korean publishing professionals and students to learn about how to sell, market, develop and learn about international publishing and how to sell Korean books in the global market. Information is available upon request.
She also represents award winning authors from Australia, Germany, United States, Japan, Turkey and many other countries. She is a maverick at discovering new authors and bringing under represented voices to the notice of the world including works by Ensaf Haidar, wife of imprisoned Saudi Activist Raid Badawai, Bandi, North Korean writer, Frida Khalaf who escapes Isis and lived to write about it as well as other free speech activists. Barbara was awarded the International Agent of the Year Award at the 2016 London Book Fair. She is the first and pioneering the marketing and selling of Korean literature to Hollywood and the development of Korean books to film globally such as with The Plotters by Un su Kim, The Only Child by Seo Mi Ae, Please Look After Mom by Kyung sook Shin, Perfect Happiness by You Jeong Jeong , The Disaster Tourist by Ko-eun Yun and others..
In her own right, she is a novelist and author of The JM Barrie Ladies Swimming Society, publishing in fourteen countries and also in Korea, and currently in development with Barnaby Thompson’s Fragile Films in the UK as a feature film. She has published two other novels and her play about bestselling maverick writer Jacqueline Susan, Paper Doll, has been produced throughout the United States starring Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham and Emmy Award and Golden Globe Winner, Marlo Thomas.
Barbara is currently developing an educational program for Korean publishing professionals and students to learn about how to sell, market, develop and learn about international publishing and how to sell Korean books in the global market. Information is available upon request.