Russia's Most Prestigious Literary Award Also Won by a Korean-Descendant Writer

Korean-American Writer Kim Juhye Wins Russian Tolstoy Literary Award

Juhye Kim (37), a Korean-American writer, won the Russian Tolstoy Literary Prize (Yasnaya Polyana Prize) for foreign literature on the 10th (local time) with her novel Beasts of a Little Land. Following Han Kang, who became the first Asian woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, a Korean-descended writer's novel has once again gained global recognition.

The Tolstoy Literary Prize was established in 2003 by the Lev Tolstoy Museum in Russia and Samsung Electronics Russia to commemorate the 175th anniversary of Tolstoy's birth. It is regarded as Russia's most prestigious literary award.

Juhye Kim, a Korean-American author of "Beasts of a Little Land," poses for a commemorative photo after receiving the 2024 Tolstoy Literary Award (Yasnaya Polyana Award) for Foreign Literature at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia, on the 10th (local time). Photo by Yonhap News

On the 10th (local time), the Lev Tolstoy Museum announced on its website, “Among novels translated into Russian, Juhye Kim's Beasts of a Little Land has been selected as the 2024 Tolstoy Literary Prize winner for foreign literature.”

On the same day, Kim was selected as the winner at the award ceremony held at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia, together with Kirill Batygin, who translated the work into Russian. This achievement came after surpassing ten final nominees in the foreign literature category, including Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk.

Among the ten finalists, Kim proudly surpassed Olga Tokarczuk, the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature winner from Poland. Previous recipients include Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel laureate from Turkey, and Chinese writer Yu Hua.

Beasts of a Little Land is Kim’s debut novel. It depicts the tumultuous lives of ordinary people living in Korea during the Japanese colonial period. Published in the United States in 2021, it received acclaim, including being selected as Amazon’s “Book of the Month,” and was first published domestically in Korea in 2022.

'Beasts of a Small Land' Photo by Dasan Books

According to Dasan Books, jury member Pavel Vasinsky said at a press conference about Beasts of a Little Land, “There are beasts here. Among them, the tiger symbolizes Korean independence. I would compare this work to Aleksey Tolstoy’s The Road to Calvary,” adding, “It is very well written, transparent, and mature?an astonishing work for such a young writer.”

The day Kim was selected as the winner coincided with the day Han Kang was named the first Korean Nobel laureate in literature. In an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Moscow on the 11th (local time), she said, “The deep and passionate soul of Koreans becomes the strength of Korean literature.”

She continued, “Characters in Korean novels are three-dimensional. They show true humans who are neither entirely good nor entirely evil. That is why readers end up watching even evil characters until the end, loving and sympathizing with them,” and added, “The power of literature is to open hearts so that one feels compassion for someone else and experiences their pain as one’s own.”

She also said, “It is a tremendous honor to be mentioned alongside senior writer Han Kang, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.” Agreeing with media assessments that “Korean (K) literature has begun to gain global traction,” she said, “While the individual skills and achievements of writers are important, this success was also achieved through national support such as the Literature Translation Institute of Korea and the overall rise in Korea’s cultural recognition.”

Kim was born in Incheon in 1987 and moved to the United States at the age of nine. She studied art and archaeology at Princeton University and began her literary career in 2016 by publishing the short story “Body Language” in the British literary magazine Granta. She has contributed essays and critiques to various newspapers and magazines. In 2019, she translated the late writer Choi In-ho’s short story The Biggest House on Earth.