Kim Kyung-uk (the romanization preferred by the author according to LTI Korea), is a Korean author.

Life

Kim Kyung-uk was born in

Gwangju Gwangju () is South Korea's sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister. The city was also the capital of South Jeolla Province until the provincial office ...

, South Jeolla Province, South Korea in 1971. He completed his undergraduate degree in English Language and Literature and a master's degree in Korean Language and Literature from

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a national public research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University is largely considered the most prestigious university in South Korea; it is one of the three "S ...

. His career as a novelist began when he won the 1993 Best New Writer Award from the quarterly Writer's World for his novella ''Outsider''. In 2013, he participated in the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa. Kim teaches creative writing at the Korean National University of Arts in the School of Drama.

Work

Kim's debut short story "Outsider," published in 1993 when still in university, follows a first-person narrator passing several stops on the

Seoul subway The Seoul Metropolitan Subway is a metropolitan railway system consisting of 23 rapid transit, light metro, commuter rail and people mover lines located in northwest South Korea. The system serves most of the Seoul Metropolitan Area including ...

while recalling memories concerning a high school student he had once taught. While depicting the expressions of anonymous crowds in the urban subterranean world, the narrator continuously mulls over movie scenes and bars of pop music. Kim's first novel ''Acropolis'' depicts university campus life in the early 1990s when interest in ideology abruptly waned. Kim persistently followed what is called the 1990s generation and the culture that dominated that time in his work. Kim Kyung-uk not only had a great interest in music but, responding to the visual era, he published many works that explored his interest in movies and his cinematic imagination. In fact, Kim's first short story collection ''There’s No Coffee at the Bagdad Cafe'' takes its title from the Percy Adlon movie

Bagdad Café ''Bagdad Cafe'' (sometimes ''Bagdad Café'', titled ''Out of Rosenheim'' in Germany) is a 1987 English-language West German film directed by Percy Adlon. It is a comedy-drama set in a remote truck stop and motel in the Mojave Desert in the U.S. st ...

. The title story of the collection is about an assistant film director who, while scouting for potential shooting locations, meets a woman. The novel Morrison Hotel takes its title from the 1970s album of the rock group The Doors, and the short story collections ''Who Killed Kurt Cobain?'' and ''Leslie Chung is Dead?'' take their titles from the band leader

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...

of Nirvana, who largely symbolized the 1990s, and the Hong Kong-based movie star Leslie Cheung. Notably, The Doors vocalist Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Leslie Cheung were all icons who committed suicide. More recently, the world of Kim's fiction has been moving away from the sphere of contemporary culture. He has also published ''The Golden Apple'', a novel based on Umberto Eco’s ''The Name of the Rose'', and ''The Kingdom of a Thousand Years'' about the Dutch man Weltevree, who was shipwrecked on the shores of Chosun in 1627.

Works in Korean

Short story collections * ''There is No Coffee at the Bagdad Café'' (''Bageudadeu kape-eneun keopi-ga eoptda'' 1996) * ''Going to Meet Betty'' (''Beti-reul mannareo gada'' 1999) * ''Who Killed Kurt Cobain?'' (''Nuga keoteu kobein-eul jukyeoss-neunga'' 2003) * ''Is Leslie Chung Really Dead?'' (''Janggukyeong-i jukeossdago?'' 2005) * ''Risky Reading'' (''Wiheomhan dokseo'' 2008) * ''God has no Grandchildren'' (''Sin-egeneun sonja-ga eoptda'' 2011) Novels * ''Acropolis'' (''Akeuropolliseu'' 1995) * ''Morrison Hotel'' (''Moriseun hotel'' 1997) * ''The Golden Apple'' (''Hwanggeum sagwa'' 2002) * ''Kingdom of a Thousand Years'' (''Cheonnyeon-ui wangguk'' 2007) * ''Like a Fairy Tale'' (''Donghwacheoreom'' 2010) * ''What is Baseball'' (''Yaguran mueot-inga'' 2013)

Awards

* Writer's World Best New Writer's Award (1993) * Contemporary Literature (Hyundae Munhak) Award (2008) * Dong-in Literary Award (2009) * Hankook Ilbo Literature Prize (2004)

References

External links