VOL.93/2026.04

Korean Publishers

 

Darambooks Publishing: Approaching Korean Literature with a Fresh Perspective
CEO Park Hye-jin, a Former News Anchor Turned Publisher

 

 

2026.03

 

 

What is the unique charm found within a book? A journalist who once led the main news for South Korea’s public broadcaster has embarked on a new challenge through books. This is the story of CEO Park Hye-jin, a former MBC news anchor. Darambooks is a house that communicates deeply with readers about the events and social phenomena that Korean society must not forget. Through CEO Park Hye-jin, we explore how Darambooks engages with the world and views society through its diverse catalog—from social issues seen through a journalist’s lens to works of science fiction.

 

 

 

 

 

Q. What is the meaning behind the name “Darambooks," and how is it reflected in your publishing direction?

 

Long ago, I watched a documentary about squirrels. A squirrel, with its cheeks full of acorns, buries them in the ground and leaves to find more. It repeats this same action for a long time. Thanks to those forgotten acorns, oak trees eventually grow from the spots where they were buried. It was a scene created by a beautiful forgetfulness.

Darambooks takes its name from this image of a squirrel (daramjui in Korean). I wanted to create books with the hope of gathering good stories like a squirrel collecting acorns and planting them quietly in people’s hearts, so that one day those stories might take deep root like oak trees.

I believe those who have experienced books as a source of comfort, courage, or a way to expand their understanding of themselves and others during certain periods of life naturally choose a life with books. If a book from Darambooks can become such an “acorn seed" for someone, I could ask for nothing more.

 

 

 

 

Q. What motivated you, as a former journalist, to start running a publishing house?

 

Since leaving the media over a decade ago, I have been living as a freelance broadcaster and a publisher. By nature, my heart is easily moved by the stories of people and the world, and I tend to hold onto a story for a long time once it reaches me. I am the type of person who prefers to keep stories close and look into them slowly, reflecting on them repeatedly in my mind rather than letting them flow away.

Because of this, I wanted to continue those stories in my own way. I began to dream of a format that does not disappear easily and can endure across time, rather than the speed and immediacy inherent in broadcasting. I imagined records that are read slowly like catching one's breath and stay with the reader at a deliberate pace. It seems that this desire naturally led me to the work of sharing stories through the medium of print and books.

 

 

 

 

Q. When Darambooks decides on which titles to publish, what are the three main criteria you consider, and why do you choose to publish those specific books?

 

I consider three main criteria to be important when making a book.

First is whether the “human" is placed at the center of the story. Rather than grand discourses or sensational subjects, I seek to publish stories where a single person's life, emotions, choices, and dignity are clearly revealed.

Second is whether the book poses questions worth thinking about together. It is important that the theme is not a story with a predetermined answer, but one that leaves room for readers to contemplate and reason together.

Third is whether the book possesses an unconventional approach and “fun planning." I aim for books that have the power to lead the reader to the very end through new perspectives and formats.

Under these criteria, Darambooks has published the following four books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q. You publish a wide range of books, including novels and essays. Is there a specific message that Darambooks wishes to convey to Korean society through its books?

 

The books of Darambooks begin with a re-examination of individual lives that Korean society has often overlooked or simplified. In a society where speed and efficiency have become virtues, many voices often pass by without being fully heard. Darambooks stops to listen to those stories and aims to fully record the complexity and uniqueness of a single person's life. We also gently pose a question to our readers about what a society would look like if it prioritized human voices and dignity over speed and performance. This is because we believe that even if people living in their respective places cannot fully understand one another, they can still possess a perspective that observes another person's life without easily judging it. We hope that staying in someone else's life through a book can become a small seed for understanding yet another life.

 

 

 

 

Q. Among the books published by Darambooks, which one would you most recommend to international readers?

 

It is the essay It’s Okay to Hate My Mother by author Kim Yun-dam.

This book captures the process of the author, who experienced emotional abuse from parents within the home during childhood, passing through a long period of darkness to stand again as a healthy mother and member of society. Late last year, the publishing rights for this book were exported to a major Polish publishing house, gaining recognition for its universal message and narrative power abroad.

Physical and emotional violence or abuse occurring within the home are often treated as strictly personal family matters and rarely surface outside of society. Especially in Korean society, where filial piety (hyo) is regarded as an important value, the act of resenting parents or raising issues is easily viewed as unethical. As a result, the responsibility for the wounds is often turned back onto the children. Many people live their entire lives carrying such pain and trauma.

The author of this book does not avoid the wounds that could be considered weaknesses or shames, but looks into the deepest parts and confesses honestly. Then, as if to prove that the gaze of parents and society was wrong, she chooses to lead a more diligent and healthy life on her own. This book is not a mere record of accusation or anger, but a narrative of recovery of a human being who rescues herself from her wounds.

In a reality where parents are beings as vast as the universe yet at the same time can become a bond that is difficult to escape, I would like to recommend this book to everyone who wishes to rise resolutely from those bonds and live their own lives. I believe It’s Okay to Hate My Mother is a book that goes beyond the story of a specific culture and can share universal questions about family, wounds, and recovery with readers around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Q. In what way do you hope Darambooks will be positioned in the publishing industry in the future? If you could define the identity of Darambooks in a single word, what would it be?

 

I would like to say “Courage."

The books that Darambooks wants to create are those that offer the courage to live as oneself in one’s own place, rather than presenting grand success or definitive answers. I am talking about the courage to speak up against lies and injustice, the courage to face uncomfortable and painful history without looking away, and the courage to not recklessly compare one's life with that of others.

Furthermore, I want to convey the courage to protect one's own thoughts without being easily swayed even when holding a different opinion from the majority, the courage to allow oneself to be okay without “becoming" something specific, and the courage to believe that one can be sufficiently happy even within the small joys of life.

I would be happy if Darambooks is remembered as a publishing house that quietly but clearly encourages such forms of courage through its books.

 

 

 

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Interview byThe Contents Factory Co., Ltd.

Designing 'More' Innovative Communication and Experiences Through Content.