Kyung-Sook Shin, also Shin Kyung-sook or Shin Kyoung-sook (, born 12 January 1963), is a

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n writer. She was the only South Korean and only woman to win the

Man Asian Literary Prize The Man Asian Literary Prize was an annual literary award between 2007 and 2012, given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to writer ...

in 2012 for '' Please Look After Mom''.

Life

Kyung-Sook Shin was born in 1963 in a village near

Jeongeup Jeongeup (), also known as Jeongeup-si, is a city in North Jeolla Province, South Korea. The city limits include Naejang-san National Park, a popular destination particularly in autumn due to its foliage. Jeongeup is on the Honam Expressway and ...

North Jeolla Province North Jeolla Province (; ''Jeollabuk-do''), also known as Jeonbuk, is a province of South Korea. North Jeolla has a population of 1,869,711 (2015) and has a geographic area of 8,067 km2 (3,115 sq mi) located in the Honam region in the southwest ...

in southern

. She was the fourth child and oldest daughter of six. At sixteen she moved to

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 ...

, where her older brother lived. She worked in an electronics plant while attending night school. She made her literary debut in 1985 with the novella ''Winter’s Fable'' after graduating from the

Seoul Institute of the Arts Seoul Institute of the Arts is a prominent educational institution specializing in the Arts located in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The school has nurtured many graduates who are actively working in art related fields within Korea as w ...

as a

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

major. Along with

Kim Insuk Kim Insuk () is a South Korean writer. Life Kim Insuk was born in 1963 in Seoul. She suffered the death of her father when she was five years old. She spent her childhood under the mother of a hostess. She graduated from Jinmyeong Girls' High ...

and

Gong Ji-young Gong Jiyeong (; born January 31, 1963) is a South Korean novelist. Life Gong Jiyeong was interested in literature from an early age, and while still a teenager, self-published her own stories and poems.Korean Writers and Novelists. Minumsa Pub ...

, Kyung-Sook Shin is one of the group of female writers known as the 386 Generation.

Career

Kyung-Sook Shin won the Munye Joongang New Author Prize for her novella ''Winter Fables''. She has won a wide variety of literary prizes, including the Today’s Young Artist Award from the South Korean

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) is a central government agency responsible for the areas of tourism, culture, art, religion, and sports. It has two vice ministers, three assistant ministers, one commission, and ...

; ''

Hankook Ilbo ''Hankook Ilbo'' () is a Korean-language daily newspaper in Seoul, South Korea. As of 2017, it had a daily circulation of about 213,200. It was previously published by the Hankook Ilbo Media Group, however following an embezzlement scandal in ...

'' Literature Prize; Hyundae Literature Award; Manhae Literature Prize;

Dong-in Literary Award The Dong-in Literary Award ( ko, 동인문학상) is a South Korean literary award named after novelist Kim Dong-in, established in order to praise the literary achievement of The Republic of Korea. In commemoration of the Korean modern literatu ...

;

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 Oh Yeongsu Literature Prize. In 2009 the French translation of her work ''A Lone Room'', ''La Chambre solitaire'', was one of the winners of the Prix de l'inaperçu, which recognizes excellent literary works which have not yet reached a wide audience. The international rights to the million-copy bestseller '' Please Look After Mother'' were sold in 19 countries, including the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and various countries in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, beginning with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The book was translated into English by Chi-young Kim, and released on March 31, 2011. Kyung-Sook Shin won the 2011

for '' Please Look After Mom'', the first woman to do so.

Controversy

On June 16, 2015, The Huffington Post Korea reported that Kyung-Sook Shin had plagiarized

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Nationalism, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was ...

's passage from the short story ''

Patriotism Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...

'' in her book ''Legend''. Shin apologised; her publisher withdrew a collection of her short stories.

Works

Novels * ''Winter Fable'' (, 1990) * ''Deep Sorrow'' (, 1994) * ''A Lone Room'' (, 1995) ** translated as ''The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness'' by Ha-Yun Jung (Pegasus Books, 2015) * ''Long Ago, When I Left My Home'' (, 1996) * ''The Train Departs at 7'' (, 1999) * ''Violet'' (, 2001) ** translated as ''Violets'' by Anton Hur (

Feminist Press The Feminist Press (officially The Feminist Press at CUNY) is an American independent nonprofit literary publisher that promotes freedom of expression and social justice. It publishes writing by people who share an activist spirit and a belief in ...

, 2022) * ''J's Story'' (, 2002) * ''Yi Jin'' (, 2007) ** translated a
''The Court Dancer''
by Anton Hur (Pegasus Books, 2018) * ''Please Look After Mom'' (, 2009) ** translated ''Please Look After Mom'' by Chi-Young Kim (

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

, 2011) * ''I'll Be Right There'' (, 2010) ** translated a
''I'll Be Right There''
by Sora Kim-Russell (

Other Press Other Press is an independent publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction, based in New York City. Founded in 1998 to publish academic and psychoanalytic titles, Other Press has since expanded to publish novels, short stories, nonfiction, poetr ...

, 2014) * ''The Unknown Women'' (, 2011) * ''Stories I Wish To Tell the Moon'' (, 2013) Short stories * "Where the Harmonium Once Stood" (, 1993) ** translated as ''The Place Where the Harmonium Was'' by Agnita Tennant in the Modern Korean Literature Series (

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 ...

, 2012) * "Potato Eaters" (, 1997) * "Until It Turns into a River" (, 1998) * "Strawberry Fields" (, 2000) * "The Sound of Bells" (, 2003) Non-fiction * ''Beautiful Shade'' (, 1995) * ''Sleep, Sorrow'' (, 2003)

Awards

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 ' ...

(1995) * Manhae Award for Literature (1996) *

(1997) * 21st Century Literature Award (2000) *

(2001) * Oh Young-su Literary Award (2006) * Prix de l'inaperçu (2009) * Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award (2011) *

(2012) * Mark of Respect Award (2012) * Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club Foreign Public Relations Award - Literary Section (2012) *

Ho-Am Prize The ''Ho-Am Prize'' (호암상, 湖岩賞, literally ''lake and rock award'') is a Korean annual award presented to "domestic/abroad ethnic Korean who have made outstanding contributions to the development of science and culture and enhancement o ...

- Literature Award (2013)

References

External links

Interview with Kyung-Sook Shin

Review of "I'll Be Right There" at KTLIT

External links

KTLIT's "Shin Kyoung-sook" page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shin, Kyung-Sook 1963 births South Korean novelists South Korean women writers Living people Yi Sang Literary Award Recipients of the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts Sin clan of Pyongsan

Life

Career

Controversy

Works

Awards

See also

References

External links

External links