Kim, Young-Ha 1968–

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Kim, Young-Ha 1968–

PERSONAL:

Born 1968, in Hwacheon, South Korea; married. Education: Yonsei University, B.A., M.A.

CAREER:

Writer. Korea National University of Arts, drama teacher. Host of daily radio program about literature and authors for Seoul Broadcasting System.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Dongin Literary Award; Isan Literary Award, Hyeondae Literary Award, both 1999; Yi Sang Literature Award, 2004, for ‘The Brother Is Back"; Hwang Sun-won Literature Award, 2004, for Treasure Ship; Dong Literature Award, 2004, for Black Flower.

WRITINGS:

Nanen nareul pagiohal gweolliga itda (novel), [Korea], 1996, translation by Chi-Young Kim published as I Have the Right to Destroy Myself, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2007.

Whatever Happened to That Guy Stuck in the Elevator? (stories), 1999.

Author of short story collections, including Pager; author of essay collections, including Fishing for Corbina Fish and Post-it; author of novels, including The Brother Is Back, Treasure Ship, and Black Flower; two novels published as The Scarlet Letter.

SIDELIGHTS:

Young-Ha Kim caused a sensation in the Korean literary world in 2004 when he won the ‘Grand Slam"—all three of the country's prestigious literary prizes. But Kim was already familiar with celebrity. His first novel, Nanen nareul pagiohal gweolliga itda, translated in 2007 by Chi-Young Kim as I Have the Right to Destroy Myself, attracted considerable attention both in Korea and, in translation, in France—where, according to Seoul Times Web site contributor Michael Standaert, the book caused ‘a small sensation.’ It tells the story of a young man who answers calls to a suicide helpline. Instead of guiding callers away from suicide, however, the protagonist begins providing them with suggestions about how to take their own lives—which some of them go on to do. The protagonist then writes their stories and publishes them anonymously. Writing on the Straight.com Web site, critic John Burns noted the novel's provocative subject, but found its treatment sometimes ‘juvenile.’ Nevertheless, Burns felt that Kim's suggestion that it is better to die with style than continue living a meaningless life is an idea that adds complexity to his theme. Booklist reviewer Ray Olson considered I Have the Right to Destroy Myself reminiscent of the bleak and sparsely written novels of Stephen Crane, while a writer for Publishers Weekly hailed the novel as a ‘tantalizing’ story that explores provocative themes without descending into ‘base voyeurism."

In the novel The Black Flower, which Standaert called Kim's most important work to date, Kim presents a very different type of story: a historical novel, based on fact, about Korean immigrants to Mexico in the early years of the twentieth century. A group of about a thousand Koreans, including Catholic priests, shamans, peasants, and retired military men, moved to Mexico in 1905. Within five years, some moved on to Guatemala, where they joined the local Mayans in a revolution that resulted in the formation of a small independent state in the jungle. As Kim tells it, this state soon collapses and the immigrants scatter, finding work on hacienda plantations. In 1910, revolution in Mexico shuts down the plantations and the immigrants scatter again, moving to Caribbean nations or further into the Central American interior. ‘I always try to find ideas that no one else has dealt with,’ Kim commented in an interview for KBS Global. The story of the Korean immigrants so intrigued him that he traveled to Mexico, Guatemala, and Antigua to absorb himself in the setting in which these migrants lived. The novel won the Dong Literature Award in 2004.

Treasure Ship, which tells the story of how the discovery of a wrecked treasure ship causes a stock market fluctuation, won the Hwang Sun-won Literature Award that same year. Kim's third major prize in 2004, the Yi Sang Literature Award, was given for his novel The Brother Is Back.

Kim teaches in the theater department at Korea National University of Arts. As he explained in the KBS Global interview, ‘I chose the Department of Drama because I did not want to become a trainer who only teaches student[s] how to win the spring literature contest.’ Kim also hosts a daily radio program about literature and writers for Seoul Broadcasting System.