Novelist Han Kang Achieves Korea's First Nobel Prize in Literature

Novelist Han Kang has become the recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Swedish Academy announced around 8 p.m. (Korean time) on the 10th that this year's Nobel Prize in Literature winner is Korean novelist Han Kang.

This is the second Nobel Prize awarded to a Korean, following the late former President Kim Dae-jung's Nobel Peace Prize in 2000. Additionally, Han Kang is the first Asian female writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Han Kang will receive a medal, a certificate, and a prize of 11 million kronor (approximately 1.34 billion KRW).

[Photo provided by Changbi, (c) Baek Daheum]

Previously, Han Kang rose to global prominence after winning the prestigious Booker Prize in the UK in 2016 for her novel The Vegetarian. Since then, her works have been translated and published in over 40 countries, gaining worldwide attention and culminating in the historic achievement of becoming the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024.

Han Kang was born in 1970 in Gwangju, Jeollanam-do, and began her literary career by publishing poetry in Literature and Society in 1993. The following year, her short story The Red Anchor won the Seoul Shinmun New Writer's Contest, marking the start of her writing career.

She has published novels such as Black Deer, Your Cold Hand, The Vegetarian, Wind Blows, Go Away, Greek Lessons, Human Acts, White, and Do Not Say Goodbye; short story collections including Love in Yeosu, My Woman's Fruit, and Yellow Mustard Field; and poetry collections such as I Put Dinner in the Drawer. She has received numerous awards including the Manhae Literature Prize, Dongri Literature Prize, Yi Sang Literary Prize, Today's Young Artist Award, International Booker Prize, Malaparte Prize, and Medici Prize.