Kim Young-ha

Young-ha Kim is one of South Korea's most intellectually adventurous and consistently provocative literary authors, a writer who has explored the furthest edges of Korean postmodern fiction with considerable nerve and technical facility. His debut I Have the Right to Destroy Myself (1996) opened with a figure who assists suicides as an act of aesthetic mercy — a premise that announced a career-long interest in transgression, performance, and the violence beneath civil surfaces.

His subsequent novels — Your Republic Is Calling You, Black Flower, Quiz Show, Diary of a Murderer — span spy thriller, historical saga, and metafictional provocation with equal command. He is also a noted public speaker on creativity, and his TED Talk "Be an Artist, Right Now!" has been widely shared. Kim is a writer of genuine ambition and a central figure in Korean literary culture.