Kim Mi-wol is a multiply awarded modern writer of
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
born in
Gangneung,
South Korea.
Life
Kim Mi-wol was born in 1977 in
Gangneung in the
Gangwon
Gangwon or Kangwŏn may refer to:
* Gangwon Province (historical), the Goryeo, Joseon Dynasty and the Japanese Korean province
* Gangwon Province (South Korea), a province of South Korea, with its capital at Chuncheon. Before the division of Kore ...
province of
South Korea. Her father was a public servant and so she moved, along with his job, to Hongcheon for middle school. Unusually, she enjoyed, saying, "I liked moving to a new school. The excitement of encountering something new was overwhelming. The sadness of separation from things that were familiar paled in comparison."
Kim became a writer, she says, because "when the book I was reading had an ending that I did not like, I would re-write the conclusion of as I see It fit. Little Women, A Dog of Flanders, Sonagi (by Hwang Soon Won) and Tess are some of the examples. Considering the examples are all tragic stories, I must have preferred a happy ending even in my younger years.
She attended a secondary school for girls in
Chuncheon
Chuncheon (; ; formerly romanized as Chunchŏn; literally ''spring river'') is the capital of Gangwon Province in South Korea. The city lies in the north of the county, located in a basin formed by the Soyang River and Han River. There are some ...
. She then moved to Seoul and got a degree from
Korea University
Korea University (KU, ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea, established in 1905. The university is included as one of the SKY universities, a popular acronym referring to Korea's three most prestigious universities.
The ...
in Linguistics and a degree at the University of the Arts in Seoul in creative writing. She made her literary debut in 2004 with her work "Think Your Way Through the Garden" (Jeongwone gireul mutda) published in the newspaper
Segye Ilbo. She has received the
Munhakdongne Young Writers Award three times (2010, 2012, 2013).
Work
While Kim made her debut with "Think Your Way Through The Garden" she was initially most recognized
for “Guide to Seoul Cave” the eponymous short story from her first collection which was published in 2007.
The story deals with the isolation of modern individuals, adrift in society at large. Her tone shifted in her first novel “The Eighth Room,” (2010) which was both warm and funny in describing the position of young adults in the modern world. Later on, her work narrowed, dealing with characters who lived largely within themselves and replaced personal relationships with relationships with various objects, creating for themselves a kind of "virtual paradise".
As demonstrated in her work "What Has Yet To Happen," Kim writes about young Koreans isolated in minimal spaces in which they embrace the reality that solitude is inescapable. Loneliness, is not unusual, in fact it is inescapable and the only answer to this fact is in an existential aesthetic - not some strong will that overpowers all weakness, rather the narrower struggle to create an autonomous space by essentially embracing detachment and indifference.
Awards
* 2014 22nd Today's Young Artist Award
* 2013 4th Munhakdongne Young Writers Award
* 2012 3rd Munhakdongne Young Writers Award
* 2011 29th Shin Dong-yup Literary Award
* 2010 1st Munhakdongne Young Writers Award
Works in English
What Has Yet to Happen (
ASIA Publishers, 2014)
Guide to Seoul Cave(PDF - Brother Anthony)
Works in Korean
* Seoul Cave Guide
* The 8th Room
* The Unopened Book
* What Has Yet to Happen
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Mi-wol
1977 births
Korean writers
Living people
People from Gangneung