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 in 2012 for ''

Please Look After Mom ''Please Look After Mom'' () is a novel by South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin. It sold a million copies within 10 months of release in 2009 in South Korea, is critically acclaimed internationally and the English translation by Chi-young Kim w ...

''.

Life

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

Jeongeup Jeongeup (), also known as Jeongeup-si, is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, 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. ...

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 city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

, 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 literar ...

major. Along with Kim Insuk and Gong Ji-young, Kyung-Sook Shin is one of the group of female writers known as the

386 Generation The 386 Generation (Korean: 386 세대; Simplified Chinese: 世代; ''sampallyuk sedae'') is the generation of South Koreans born in the 1960s who were very active politically as young adults, and instrumental in the democracy movement of the 1980 ...

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 ...

'' 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 literature ...

; Yi Sang Literary Award; 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 ''Please Look After Mom'' () is a novel by South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin. It sold a million copies within 10 months of release in 2009 in South Korea, is critically acclaimed internationally and the English translation by Chi-young Kim wo ...

'' 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 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

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 subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

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 ...

, beginning with China. The book was translated into English by

Chi-young Kim Chi-young Kim is a Korean-to-English literary translator who lives in the United States. Originally having trained as a lawyer and translating as a hobby helping her mom, Kim became a professional literary translator after graduation, whe she s ...

, and released on March 31, 2011. Kyung-Sook Shin won the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize for ''

'', 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, 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 considered fo ...

'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 Anton Hur () (born 7 April 1981) is a Korean writer and translator of Korean literature into English. He has translated the works of Kyung-Sook Shin, Hwang Sok-yong, and Sang Young Park, whose ''Love in the Big City'' was longlisted for the 2022 ...

( Feminist Press, 2022) * ''J's Story'' (, 2002) * ''Yi Jin'' (, 2007) ** translated a
''The Court Dancer''
by

(Pegasus Books, 2018) * ''Please Look After Mom'' (, 2009) ** translated ''Please Look After Mom'' by

Chi-Young Kim Chi-young Kim is a Korean-to-English literary translator who lives in the United States. Originally having trained as a lawyer and translating as a hobby helping her mom, Kim became a professional literary translator after graduation, whe she s ...

( Alfred A. Knopf, 2011) * ''I'll Be Right There'' (, 2010) ** translated a
''I'll Be Right There''
by

Sora Kim-Russell Sora Kim-Russell ( ko, 김소라; born 1976) is a Korean American writer and translator from California, currently residing in Seoul. She received an MA in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and has translated a number of prominent Korea ...

(

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, poet ...

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

(1997) * 21st Century Literature Award (2000) * Yi Sang Literary Award (2001) * Oh Young-su Literary Award (2006) * Prix de l'inaperçu (2009) * Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award (2011) * Man Asian Literary Prize (2012) * Mark of Respect Award (2012) * Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club Foreign Public Relations Award - Literary Section (2012) * Ho-Am Prize - 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