Ty Pak

Ty Pak (born Tae-Yong Pak, 1938) is a prolific and acclaimed writer and a distinguished speaker on Korean affairs and literature.

Biography

Pak was born in Korea during World War II. In his home country, Pak has witnessed and experienced Korea's liberation from Japan in 1945, the division during U.S. and Soviet occupation, and the trauma of the Korean War at his home country during his early childhood and young adolescent years - the very experience that drove him to retire early from a 17 years' teaching career at University of Hawaii to devote fully to writing in 1987.

Pak received his law degree from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea in 1961, and his Ph.D. in English from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, the United States, in 1969.

Prior to his immigration to the United States in 1965, Pak worked as a reporter at Korea for the English dailies, The Korean Republic and The Korea Times after his graduation from Seoul National University.

From 1970 to 1987, Pak taught in the English Department at the University of Hawaii. At age 49, Pak decided to retire early and devote himself to writing. His first collection of short stories, Guilt Payment (1983), has been widely adopted as textbooks at many US colleges.

Selected publications

• A Korean Decameron, 1961 (reprinted with a grant from Harvard University)
• Guilt Payment (short story collection), Bamboo Ridge Press, 1983
• Moonbay (short story collection), Woodhouse Inc, 1999
• Cry Korea Cry (novel), 1999

Personal

Pak is married and with three children; he presently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.