Professor Insu Fenkl Showcases New Novel “Skull Water”

On April 16, Professor Heinz Insu Fenkl headlined an online seminar sharing insight about his novel, “Skull Water,” published last year by Spiegel & Grau. Through the tedious process of transforming a memoir into a novel, Fenkl used his spotlight to reflect on the experience, while highlighting specific elements of this unique piece of literature. Joined by Professor Jansma and in collaboration with the creative writing department, Fenkl showcased a slideshow of background information associated with his novel, accompanied by a moving reading of the first chapter. 

According to his website, Fenkl was born in Bupyeong-gu and grew up in Korea, and then later lived in Germany and the United States. Much of his works are influenced by his surroundings. Out of his 12 published books, his autobiographical novel, “Memories of My Ghost Brother,” was named a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist and a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection. Both his fiction works and translations have been published in The New Yorker, and he’s also the translator of the classic 17th-century Korean Buddhist novel, “The Nine Cloud Dream,” by Kim Man-jung, published by Penguin Classics. 

In his newer publication, “Skull Water,” the writer embraced the use of I-Ching, an ancient Chinese divination text during the lecture. He shared that I-Ching is a way of tapping into your own memory in a scope you wouldn’t think possible. By using pictograms as an associative and immersive device, you’re able to ask I-Ching questions similar to a magic 8 – ball. Something special about this practice is that it’s influenced by your brain’s personal associative process. 

Fenkl shared pictures of the front cover, comparing the original memoir’s version and the current novel version, drawing attention to the choices made during the layout process. He decided to reposition the title larger and incorporate a pictogram. His novel is peppered with these insightful pictograms, as a mode of Fenkl’s own creativity.

“I was consulting the I-Ching as I went along,” Fenkl stated. “These are the reading’s pictograms.” 

Each chapter has its own pictogram, which are shaped in unique hexagons. The title page includes the writer’s Korean signature, perhaps a simple nod to his translation skills, as he shared dedicating years of his life to translating works from Korean to English. 

Credibility is an asset in modern literature and this novel is no exception.

“This opening section, that’s all purely from experience,” Fenkl shared. “One of the ironies of a memoir turned into a novel is that you get more liberty to make the story work right. You get to adjust things like plot and make it more dramatic and simplify it, because reality is so complicated. But the approach I took was a bit different, because I didn’t want to have a predictable plot.” 

Fenkl’s years of experiences have crafted him into a talented and intriguing writer, which shines through in all of his works. You can find his new novel “Skull Water” for purchase online to immerse yourself in his eye-opening story.