'Hangang Nobel Literature Prize' to be etched in Korean literary history

Award Ceremony Past Midnight on the 11th Korean Time
Presented by King Carl Gustaf XVI

December 11, 2024, will be forever engraved in the history of Korean literature. Shortly after midnight on this day, novelist Han Kang (photo) will become the first Korean to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The 2024 Nobel Prize award ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. local time on the 10th at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Sweden. Swedish time is 8 hours behind Korea.

The Concert Hall will be adorned with the symbolic "Blue Carpet" of the award ceremony. After King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden enters and Astrid Biding, Chairperson of the Nobel Foundation, delivers a brief speech, the awards presentation will begin.

Han Kang, along with the other Nobel laureates in four categories, will receive the Nobel medal and certificate from King Gustaf XVI. The awards will be presented in the order of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Economics.

About 1,300 people are expected to attend the ceremony, including the Swedish royal family, laureates, representatives from various sectors of Swedish society, ambassadors from various countries, and journalists covering the event. The ceremony will last approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Novelist Han Kang is receiving a bouquet after finishing a commemorative lecture on winning the Nobel Prize at the Swedish Academy on the 7th (local time).
Photo by AFP Yonhap News

After the ceremony, a banquet will continue from 7 p.m. at the Blue Hall of the Stockholm City Hall. The Stockholm City Hall is a 5 to 10-minute drive from the Stockholm Concert Hall where the ceremony takes place.

The Nobel laureates will be seated at the central table with King Gustaf XVI and other royal officials. The Nobel banquet attracts great attention and is broadcast live locally. The dinner prepared by the "Chef of the Year," selected by the Nobel Committee, costs about 3,600 kronor (approximately 470,000 KRW) per person.

The Nobel laureates will each give a brief acceptance speech around 10:35 p.m. after the banquet ends. Since this is Han Kang’s official speaking opportunity following her lecture on the 7th, attention is focused on what she will say. After the dinner, a ball will continue in the Golden Hall of the City Hall.

On the 8th, Han Kang reportedly visited the apartment where Swedish children’s author Astrid Lindgren (1907?2002) lived during her lifetime.

Han Kang previously expressed at a press conference that she likes Lindgren’s "The Brothers Lionheart" and wanted to visit Lindgren’s apartment. Invited by the Astrid Lindgren Society and Lindgren’s family, Han Kang visited the apartment in the Dalagatan area of Stockholm where Lindgren lived for over 60 years, from 1941 until her death in 2002, and met Lindgren’s great-grandson Johan Palmberg. The apartment is where Lindgren wrote her works.

Lindgren is a world-renowned children’s author known for works such as the "Pippi Longstocking" series and "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils." She worked for children’s rights and greatly influenced the enactment of Sweden’s ban on corporal punishment of children. In 2002, the Swedish government established the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award to honor authors who contribute to children’s literature. In Korea, author Baek Heena, known for "Cloud Bread" and "The Fairy at the Long-Life Bathhouse," became the first Korean to receive this award in 2020.