Han Kang is a South Korean writer known for her intense, poetic prose in novels such as The Vegetarian (2007), Human Acts (2014) and The White Book (2016). In 2024, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature for "intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life".
Han Kang was born in Gwangju in 1970. She moved to Seoul with her family when she was ten. Kang grew up in the Suyu-dong district, an area she remembers as vibrant and nurturing. "Seoul is where I found my voice," she once said in an interview.
Han Kang studied Korean literature at Yonsei University and developed a deep appreciation of her cultural and literary heritage.
Han debuted as a poet in 1993 with five poems published in the winter issue of Literature and Society, including "Winter in Seoul". The following year, she turned to fiction, winning the Seoul Shinmun Spring Literary Contest with her story "Red Anchor". Kang published her first collection of short stories, Love of Yeosu (1995), a work that marked the beginning of her career as a novelist. Her international profile increased when she joined the University of Iowa's International Writing Program in 1998, supported by the Arts Council of Korea.
Throughout her career, Han Kang has explored themes of violence, memory and human vulnerability. Her works include Fruits of My Woman (2000), Black Deer (1998), Your Cold Hands (2002), Breath Fighting (2010), Greek Lessons (2011), and I Do Not Bid Farewell (2021). In addition to her fiction, she has published a collection of poetry, I Put the Evening in the Drawer (2013).
Han's work has won numerous awards. In 1999, she won the Korean Novel Award for her novella "Baby Buddha", followed by the Yi Sang Literary Award in 2005 for "Mongol Spot". The Vegetarian (2007) gained international recognition, winning the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. Her depiction of trauma in Human Acts (2014), focusing on the Gwangju Uprising, won her the Malaparte Prize in Italy (2017) and the Manhae Literary Prize in South Korea. She was also awarded the Hwang Sun-won Literary Prize (2015) for her novella While One Snowflake Melts and the Kim Yujung Literary Prize (2018) for Farewell.
In 2024, Han Kang became the first South Korean writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Committee praised her for "a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead".
Considering her achievement, Han said: "Writing allows me to face pain, not as a witness, but as a bearer of stories.
Her latest novel, We Do Not Part, will be published in English in 2025.
Photo credit: han-kang.net
