About the Author:
Han Kang
Hang Kang: In a Nutshell
Born in Gwangju in 1970.
She moved to Seoul at aged 10 and later studied Korean literature at Yonsei University.
Her father was also a novelist.
She had a sister who died in childbirth, about whom Kang wrote the novel The White Book.
She is an accomplished writer, having written several novels including Human Acts, The Vegetarian, and The White Book, as well as collections of short stories.
She has won the International Booker Prize for The Vegetarian.
Click the dropdown below to see her full biography, taken from her website.
Hang Kang's Bio
Han Kang was born in Gwangju in 1970. Since the age of ten, She grew up in Suyuri, Seoul after her family moved there. She studied Korean literature at Yonsei University. She made her literary debut as a poet by publishing five poems, including “Winter in Seoul”, in the winter issue of Munhak-gwa-sahoe (Literature and Society) in 1993. She began her career as a novelist the next year by winning the 1994 Seoul Shinmun Spring Literary Contest with “Red Anchor”. She published her first short story collection entitled Yeosu (Munji Publishing Company) in 1995. She participated in the University of Iowa International Writing Program for three months in 1998 with support from the Arts Council Korea.
Her publications include a short story collection, Fruits of My Woman (2000), Fire Salamander (2012); novels such as Black Deer (1998), Your Cold Hands (2002), The Vegetarian (2007), Breath Fighting (2010), and Greek Lessons (2011), Human Acts (2014), The White Book (2016), I Do Not Bid Farewell (2021). A poem collection, I put the evening in the drawer (2013) was published as well.
She won the 25th Korean Novel Award with the novella, “Baby Buddha” in 1999, the 2000 Today’s Young Artist Award by Culture Ministry Korea, the 2005 YiSang Literary Award with “Mongol Spot”, and the 2010 Dongri Literary Award with The Wind is Blowing. She was awarded Manhae literary prize for Human Acts (2014) and Hwang Sun-won literary award (2015) for the novella While One Snowflake Melts. Her recent novella Farewell won the Kim Yujung Literary Prize.(2018). The Vegetarian won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. Atti umani (Human Acts) won the 2017 Malaparte Prize in Italy. She was awarded San Clemete Prize for The Vegetarian in spain(2019). She was selected as the fifth writer for the Future Library project in Norway in 2019. "Dear Son, My Beloved,"will be held in the Deichman Library in Oslo until its scheduled publication in 2114.
An Interview with Han Kang
You can watch this interview with Han Kang wherein she discusses her motivation for writing, her philosophy of humanity, and her experiences leaving Gwangju, as well as her emotions regarding the Gwangju massacre.
Han Kang's works have been translated by Deborah Smith. Click the image above to read an interesting article by The New Yorker about the issues with translating works, and how Smith's translations do differ from Kang's original work.
Click the image above to read an insightful interview of Han Kang via The Guardian, written by Claire Armitstead, the associate editor for culture. It gives insight into how Kang feels writing about Korea's violence.
The White Review is an international literary publication. Click the image above to read Kang's interview with The White Review wherein she discusses Korea's trauma, past and present, and how she includes this in her writing.