I’m Colin Marshall, a Seoul-based essayist, broadcaster, and public speaker on cities, language, and culture. On Substack newsletter Books on Cities, I write long-form essay-reviews on exactly that.
My first book is the Korean essay collection 《한국 요약 금지》 (“No Summarizing Korea”), and my second is Korean Newtro: Where Youth Meets Tradition. I also recently contributed a story to the Seoul-set mystery anthology 《그날, 서울에서는 무슨 일이》.
You’ll find my essays here. I write for outlets including the New Yorker, Guardian Cities, Open Culture, the Times Literary Supplement, the Los Angeles Review of Books (whose Korea Blog I wrote for six years), KCET, Boom: A Journal of California (and guest-edited its issue on architecture, infrastructure, and the built environment), Bookforum, Boing Boing, Put This On, The Japan Foundation, The Millions, 3Quarksdaily, The Quarterly Conversation, and Maximum Fun. I also write a column for the Korean newspaper 동아일보.
Previously, I hosted and produced the world-traveling podcast Notebook on Cities and Culture [RSS] [iTunes] [Youtube], which evolved from the public radio program The Marketplace of Ideas [Youtube].
My public speaking tends to cover the same suite of subjects referenced above, especially cities in cinema. I’ve presented at events like Portland and Los Angeles: The Cities in Cinema at the Hollywood Theatre and the San Francisco Urban Film Festival as well as at schools like Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Chapman University, and California State University Long Beach. If you’ve got any inquiries, please do feel free to send them along to the e-mail address below.
You can keep up with me on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter as well.
contact: colinjmarshall at gmail