Kang Gye-Sook is a literary critic and professor of Korean literature at Myongji University. She received the Changbi New Critic’s Award in 2002. Her publications include the critical essay collections Mi-eon and The Light of Depression .

Kim Ae-ran majored in playwriting at the Korean National University of Arts. Her novel My Palpitating Life sold 140,000 copies in three months and was made into the movie My Brilliant Life in 2014. The novel has been translated into French, German, Chinese, and Japanese. Her works have appeared in Azalea , Asia Literary Review , and Inostrannaya Literatura . Kim has received the Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award, Kim Yujung Literary Award, and Yi Sang Literary Award.

Kim Chunsu was born in 1922 in Tongyeong. He studied at the Art Department of Nihon University in Japan. He has been a professor at Masan University and Kyungpook National University. He received the Asia Freedom Literature Prize and Korea Literary Prize, among others. His poetry collections include Clouds and Roses , The Swamp , Flag , Death of a Boy in Budapest , Possessed by Dostoyevsky , and the collections of selected poems The Snow Falling on Chagall’s Village and The Selected Poems of Kim Chun-so o. His most noted works are “The Flower,” “An Introductory Poem for a Flower,” and others.

Kim Hoon was born in 1948. His extensive journalism career started in 1973 at The Hankook Ilbo and stretched through the years at The Sisa Press, The Kookmin Ilbo, and The Hankyoreh. He made his literary debut well past the age of 40, but has received numerous awards since: the Dongin Literary Award in 2001 for his novel Song of the Sword ; the Yi Sang Literary Award in 2004 for his short story “Cremation”; the Hwang Sun-won Literary Award in 2005 for his short story “My Sister’s Menopause”; and the Daesan Literary Award in 2007 for his novel Fortress on Mt. Namhan .