Kim Hyunseung (1913–1975) made his literary debut in 1934 when his poem, “The Lonesome Winter Evening Comes, and You,” was carried in the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper. He stopped writing toward the end of the colonial period and only started writing again after independence. His notable works include Selected Poems of Kim Hyunseung , Robust Loneliness , Commentary on Contemporary Poetry , and Survey of World Literary History .

Kim Joo-young is a novelist who began his career as a writer with the publication of “A Period of Dormancy” in 1971 in the monthly Literature magazine. His published novels are Tradesman , The Sound of Thunder , A Skate Fish and Goodbye, Mother ; his short story collections are Winter Bird and In Search of a Bird . He is the recipient of the Korea Culture and Art Award and Yi Sang Literary Award as well as numerous other literary prizes. In 2007, he received the Eungwan Cultural medal.

Kim Keum Hee has published two short story collections and is currently serializing her first novel. Her first short story collection, Sentimentality Works Only for a Day or Two , won the Sin Dong-yup Prize for Literature. She won the Munhakdongne Young Writers’ Award from 2015 to 2017. Her short story “Everything about Chess” won the Hyundae Literary Award in 2017, and was published in English by Asia Publishers.

Kim Kwang-Kyu grew up amidst the turmoil of the Korean War and its aftermath. He was born in 1941 in Seoul, and was a student at the time of the 4.19 Revolution in 1960. Kim studied German at Seoul National University as well as in Germany. He first developed his poetic voice by translating German poetry into Korean, including satirical works by Heinrich Heine, Bertolt Brecht, and Günter Eich, before ever beginning to write his own poems. He only began to publish poetry in 1975, when he was already in his mid-30s. Owing nothing to standard Korean poetic models, his...