Kim Seungok

Born in Osaka, Japan in 1941 and raised in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, Korea, Kim Seungok graduated from the Department of French Language and Literature at Seoul National University. He made his literary debut in 1962 when his short story “Practice for Life” won the Hankook Ilbo New Writer’s Award. In the same year, he founded The Age of Prose, a small literary magazine, along with his friends, such as Kim Hyeon and Choi Ha-rim. Kim launched into a literary career by publishing the short stories “Geon” and “Fantasy Notebook” in the magazine. Throughout the 1960s, he continually published short stories, including “Yeoksa,” “A Trip to Mujin,” and “Seoul-1964-Winter.” In the 1970s, however, he began winding down his writing career while intermittently publishing short stories such as “The Moonlight of Seoul, Chapter 0” and “Our Low Fence.” Kim received the Dongin Prize in 1965 for the short story “Seoul-1964-Winter,” the Yi Sang Literary Award in 1977 for the short story “The Moonlight of Seoul, Chapter 0”, and The National Academy of Arts Award (Literature) in 2012 for his significant contribution to the arts.