Hwang Sok-yong

Hwang Sok-yong is one of Korea's greatest living authors and among the most politically consequential writers in the history of Korean literature. Born in 1943, his life has unfolded alongside Korea's most turbulent modern history: he fought in the Vietnam War, participated in the labour and democracy movements of the 1970s and 80s, and spent five years in prison for an unauthorised visit to North Korea in 1989.

His fiction is correspondingly large in scope and ambition. The Guest reimagines the Sinchon massacre of 1950 through the structure of a traditional Korean exorcism ritual. Familiar Things explores the lives of people who live on and around a rubbish dump. The Old Garden is a love story told across decades of political struggle. His epic novel Jang Gil-san, serialised over ten years, is regarded as one of the great historical novels of Korean literature. He was imprisoned for his beliefs and continued to write. His work stands as a testament to what literature can bear witness to.