Kim Sum (born Kim Sujin, 23 July 1974) is a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

, best known as the author of ''One Left'' (, 2016), a novel dealing with the issue of Korean comfort women in the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

Life

Kim Sum was born in 1974 at a seaside town in

Bangeojin Bangeojin is an area in the Dong-gu district of Ulsan, South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North ...

Ulsan Ulsan (), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring ...

. When she was six, her father went to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

for a manual labor job, leaving the rest of the family to move into her grandfather's house in

Geumsan County Geumsan County (''Geumsan-gun''; Korean: 금산군) is a county in South Chungcheong Province (Before 1963, Geumsan was in Jeollabuk-do), South Korea. History Administrative district name, Geumsan-gun, have nowadays was originate from the union of ...

South Chungcheong Province South Chungcheong Province ( ko, 충청남도, ''Chungcheongnam-do''), also known as Chungnam, is a province of South Korea. South Chungcheong has a population of 2,059,871 (2014) and has a geographic area of 8,204 km2 (3,168 sq mi) located in ...

, where she ended up spending her childhood. Upon entering high school, she joined a literature club, the Cheong-un Literary Society, and dabbled in writing

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

. In 1997 she published her first short story, "On Slowness" (), in the Daejeon Ilbo, which won their New Writer's Award. Kim said she had written the story because she wanted to experiment with longer pieces of writing, rather than just poetry. A year later in 1998 she published another short story, "Time in the Middle Ages" (), which won the Munhakdongne New Writer Award, and Kim decided to become a writer. After graduating from university, Kim Sum worked as a

proofreader Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or an electronic copy of a publication to find and correct reproduction errors of text or art. Proofreading is the final step in the editorial cycle before publication. Professional Traditiona ...

for a newspaper outside of

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

, and then as an editor for a

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

for many years.

Career

Kim Sum debuted as a writer when some of her short stories were selected for publications by the Daejeon Ilbo in 1997 and Munhakdongne in 1998. Known for her "elaborate descriptions and aesthetic style" and "vivid allegories", Kim Sum has been a prolific writer since her debut, publishing numerous short story collections and novels. Many of her works, particularly more recent novels such as ''One Left'' () or ''L's Sneakers'' (), critically examine modern and contemporary Korean history and related topics, such as Korean independence from Imperial Japan, the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, South Korean democratization, and more. While ''One Left'' () tells the story of Korean comfort women who were sexually abused by Imperial Japanese soldiers, ''L's Sneakers'' () retells the story of student activist

Lee Han-yeol The June Democratic Struggle (), also known as the June Democracy Movement and June Democratic Uprising, was a nationwide pro-democracy movement in South Korea that generated mass protests from June 10 to June 29, 1987. The demonstrations force ...

, whose injuries and later death strongly influenced the

June Democratic Struggle The June Democratic Struggle (), also known as the June Democracy Movement and June Democratic Uprising, was a nationwide pro-democracy movement in South Korea that generated mass protests from June 10 to June 29, 1987. The demonstrations force ...

of 1987. Both novels focus on more recent historical events that have been critical to forming a

national identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or to one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...

amongst

South Koreans This is a demographics, demography of the population of South Korea including population density, Ethnic group, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, Religion in South Korea, religious affiliations and other aspects o ...

. Kim Sum is the recipient of multiple literary recognitions, including the

Contemporary Literature (Hyundae Munhak) Award The company Contemporary Literature (“Hyundae Munhak” in Korean), founded in South Korea in 1954, is one of the leading publishing companies in the literary field and has been publishing the nation's most prestigious monthly literary magazine ...

, the Daesan Literary Awards for fiction, the

Yi Sang Literary Award The Yi Sang Literary Award (이상문학상) is a South Korean literary award. It is one of South Korea's most prestigious literary awards, named after Yi Sang, an innovative writer in modern Korean literature. The Yi Sang Literary Award was estab ...

, and the Dongri Literature Prize. Several of her works have been translated into other languages, including ''One Left'', which was longlisted for the

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...

in 2022.

Works in Korean

* "On Slowness" (, 1997) * "Time in the Middle Ages" (, 1998) * ''Fighting Dog'' (, 2005) * ''Bed'' (, 2007) * ''Idiots'' (, 2006) * ''Iron'' (, 2008) * ''My Beautiful Sinners'' (, 2009) * ''Water'' (, 2010) * ''Liver and Gallbladder'' (, 2011) * ''To Abandon the Yellow Dog'' (, 2011) * ''Women and Their Evolving Enemies'' (, 2013) * ''Noodles'' (, 2014) * ''Woman Sewing'' (, 2015) * ''L's Sneakers'' (, 2016) * ''One Person'' (, 2016) * ''Your God'' (, 2017) * ''Flowing Letters'' (, 2018) * ''Have You Ever Wished for a Soldier To Become an Angel?: The Testimony of Japanese Military "Comfort Woman" Gil Won-ok'' (, 2018) * ''The Sublime Is Looking into Me: The Testimony of Japanese Military "Comfort Woman" Kim Bok-dong'' (, 2018) * "Divorce" () * "The Night Nobody Comes Back" () * "Disappearing Memories" () * "Hometown Address" () * "Song" () * "That Night with Gyeongsuk" () * "Silent Night, Holy Night" () * "In Search of the Perfect Place" () * "A Day To Go to Okcheon" ()

Works in translation

* ''One Left'' (

University of Washington Press The University of Washington Press is an American academic publishing house. The organization is a division of the University of Washington, based in Seattle. Although the division functions autonomously, they have worked to assist the universi ...

, 2020), translated by

Bruce Fulton Bruce Fulton is an American professor of Korean Literature and a noted translator of contemporary Korean fiction with an extensive list of publications. He has lived in the United States, Canada, and South Korea, and is married to fellow translat ...

and Ju-Chan Fulton * ''Divorce'' ( Strangers Press, 2019), translated by Emily Yae Won * ''The Night Nobody Returns Home'' (

ASIA Publishers ASIA Publishers () is a Seoul-based book publisher best known for producing multi-volume series of translated Korean literature in bilingual format, generally at novella length and usually featuring a short biography of the author, a background of ...

, 2014), translated by Jean Miseli

Awards

* 1997: Daejeon Ilbo New Writer’s Award for "On Slowness" () * 1998: Munhakdongne New Writer Award for "Time in the Middle Ages" () * 2012: 7th Heo Gyun Literary Writer Award for "To Abandon the Yellow Dog" () * 2013:

for "That Night with Gyeongsuk" () * 2013: Daesan Literary Awards for "Women and Their Evolving Enemies" (). * 2015:

for "The Story of Roots" ()

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Sum Living people South Korean women novelists South Korean novelists People from Ulsan 1974 births