Hyun Ki young

Life

Hyun Ki-Young was born on Jeju Island in 1941 and graduated from Seoul National University. He has served as the Managing Director of the National Literary Writers Association (2000–1) and as the President of the Korean Arts & Culture Foundation (2003). Hyun was also the director of the Committee for the Investigation of the April 3rd Jeju Uprising as well as the President of the Jeju Institute for the Investigation of Social Problems.

Work

Hyun is a native of Jeju, and the history of this island in the modern era, particularly the April Massacre of 1948 in which the islanders were killed en masse by the police in the latter's attempt to exterminate communist sympathizers, has been the subject of his best works of fiction. Hyun began his writing career in 1975 with "Father" (Abeoji), published in The Dong-a Ilbo, and from the very beginning of his career, he strove to depict the psychological trauma of Jeju islanders from the insider's perspective.

Hyun is best known in English for his story "Uncle Suni", which was released 2010 and panned for its poor translation. The story has since been retranslated as "Sun-I Samch'on" in a bilingual (English and Korean) volume. The story was the first ever written about the Jeju massacre, and shortly after it was released in 1978 in a collection of stories, Hyun was arrested and tortured for three days. The government claimed that this was because he had been at a protest, but as he was released he was warned against ever writing about the massacre again, which made the real reason for his arrest apparent.

Recognition

Hyun is extremely well known in South Korea having won the 5th Sin Dong-yeop Creative Works prize in 1986, the Manhae Prize in 1989, and the Oh Yeong-su Literary Prize in 1994, as well as the 1999 Hankook Ilbo Literature Prize.

Works in Korean (partial)

Works in translation