Irish Author Danielle McLaughlin’s Korea Visit Takes Her From Creative-Writing Workshops to the History of Jeju
SEOUL — Irish author Danielle McLaughlin’s visit to South Korea became more than a literary exchange. It brought her into a classroom filled with aspiring Korean writers and eventually led her to Jeju Island, a place whose difficult history had already captured her attention through the work of Nobel laureate Han Kang.
McLaughlin, the Cork-based author of Dinosaurs on Other Planets and The Art of Falling, visited Korea as part of an Irish Embassy initiative promoting exchanges between contemporary Irish writers and Korean audiences. The program began in 2024 with support from Dublin City Libraries.
More Than 50 Korean Students Join Her Workshop
One of the highlights of McLaughlin’s visit was a two-hour creative-writing workshop at Korea University, where more than 50 students gathered to hear the Irish writer discuss fiction and the realities of becoming an author.
Some students had never encountered her work before.
The enthusiasm was immediate, with students reportedly filling the classroom and remaining afterward to continue the conversation about writing, creative blocks and the challenge of producing imperfect first drafts.
McLaughlin responded by sharing her own unconventional path into fiction.
She told the students that she once believed writers were people who were simply born knowing how to tell stories. Her message was that writing is a skill that can be learned and developed.
Her practical advice included reading widely, writing consistently, finding a writing community and accepting that an early draft does not have to be perfect.
A Korean Connection Through Han Kang
McLaughlin’s interest in Korea was not limited to literature.
Before arriving, she had been reading Han Kang’s We Do Not Part, a 2021 novel that explores the legacy of the Jeju April 3 events, a traumatic period in the island’s modern history.
The book left a strong impression on her.
When she received the invitation to visit Korea, McLaughlin said she immediately knew she wanted to come. Her reading of Han Kang’s novel also helped shape her desire to see Jeju for herself.
That literary connection gave her Korean visit an unusually personal dimension: a book she had been reading in Ireland became a starting point for encountering the place that had inspired part of its historical setting.
Why Jeju Became Essential to Her Trip
Despite a busy schedule in Seoul, McLaughlin made time for a one-day trip to Jeju.
Her interest was rooted in more than the island’s scenery. Han Kang’s treatment of Jeju’s history had prompted her to want to understand the place beyond the pages of a novel.
The visit illustrates how literature can become a bridge between countries—allowing a reader thousands of kilometers away to develop a connection with a place before ever setting foot there.
McLaughlin’s Literary Journey
McLaughlin is an award-winning Irish writer whose short stories have appeared in publications including The New Yorker, The Irish Times and The Stinging Fly. She won the Windham-Campbell Prize in 2019, while her first novel, The Art of Falling, was published in 2021.
Her short-story collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets, originally published in 2015, helped establish her reputation internationally.
Her Korean visit therefore served two purposes: introducing her work to a new audience while allowing her to experience a country whose literature had already influenced her own curiosity.
A Literary Exchange With a Wider Meaning
The encounter also reflects growing cultural exchange between Ireland and South Korea.
The Irish Embassy’s writer-exchange initiative is designed to bring contemporary Irish authors to Korean readers and create direct interaction between writers and students.
For the Korean students, the visit offered a chance to speak directly with an internationally recognized writer.
For McLaughlin, the exchange provided something equally valuable: an opportunity to listen to young writers and encounter Korean history and culture beyond the books she had been reading.
From a packed university classroom in Seoul to the emotionally charged landscape of Jeju, Danielle McLaughlin’s Korean journey shows how a story can travel far beyond its pages—and sometimes lead its reader all the way to the place where that story began.
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