Last updated: January 6, 2023
1.
I tell stories. Imaginarium Kim is the legal container that enables that storytelling.
2.
I have two personas:
- Ithaka O. for English originals + translation of my Korean originals
- 한아임 (Aim Han) for Korean originals + translation of my English originals + translations of other writers’ works, in collaboration with ORCABOOKS.
Both personas tell fiction and nonfiction stories in written and spoken formats.
The two names exist to clearly mark in which language a work was originally written/spoken. (Also, I think it’s courteous to use a Korean-sounding name when I am translating from English to Korean for another author. That way, minimal attention is drawn to the translator’s name–my name.)
You can call me Ithaka or Aim. Either one is fine.
3.
This is how you pronounce Aim.
A: like when you say Aria.
im: like when you say imprint.
So, it’s A-im. Two syllables.
The name has nothing to do with the English word “aim,” as in “aim for the stars.” But I do like the goal-oriented, unintended association of this name.
4.
One of my goals is to tell a thousand stories before I die. For that purpose, I define “stories” as all story-things that 1) aren’t about me but come from me and 2) can stand on their own.
They can be short stories, novels, or poems. But derivative works, such as translations, don’t count toward the goal of one thousand.
I categorize the stories under “Pure Fiction.”
5.
Pure Fiction works have their detail pages on this site.
The English ones are here. 한국어로 된 것은 여기에 있습니다.
6.
Ongoing projects don’t have their own page on this site, because they have their own sites. A list of them can be found on the Full Corpus page. At this time, all ongoing projects are nonfiction.
That’s all. Thanks for stopping by.