Colin Marshall

Colin Marshall is a Seoul-based essayist on cities, language, and culture. He is the author of the books 한국 요약 금지 (“No Summarizing Korea,” 2024) and Korean Newtro: Where Youth Meets Tradition (2025).

Articles

Après Bowie, le déluge
On the 10th anniversary of David Bowie’s death, three books consider the rock star from new angles.
Colin MarshallFeb 24
- Music
- Biography & Autobiography
The Undying Chinese Writing System
Colin Marshall reviews two books about the past and present of the Chinese writing system.
Colin MarshallJun 27, 2025
- Cultural Studies
There’s a Seeker Born Every Minute
Colin Marshall reviews Jeremy Braddock’s “Firesign: The Electromagnetic History of Everything as Told on Nine Comedy Albums.”
Colin MarshallNov 1, 2024
You Must Change Your Writing Style: Ward Farnsworth’s Guidebooks to English Virtuosity and Ancient Philosophy
Our culture is preoccupied with content to the almost total exclusion of form, and that’s bad.
Colin MarshallMay 22, 2022
- Literary Criticism
The Yankee Who Didn’t Go Home: On Robert Whiting’s “Tokyo Junkie”
An American author’s memoir of his six decades in Japan and his love affair with Tokyo.
Colin MarshallMar 28, 2022
- Around the World
How to Make It in Seoul: Sang Young Park's Novel of Gay Almost-Romance Love in the Big City
Colin Marshall explores the difficulties of queer romance in Seoul in Sang Young Park's Novel "Love in the Big City."
Colin MarshallDec 5, 2021
Born Middle-Aged: Eight Books on Steely Dan
A review of the literature on the hyperliterate jazz-rock ironists from 1970s L.A.
Colin MarshallNov 21, 2021
- Music
The Beauty Queen Is Dead: Kwon Yeo-sun's Korean-Millennial Murder Mystery Lemon
Colin Marshall explores what goes into transforming into one's own murdered sibling in Kwon Yeo-sun's "Lemon."
Colin MarshallNov 21, 2021

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