25 Facts About Han Kang

Han Kang, who according to her father is named after the Han River, was born on 27 November 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea.

Han Kang's older brother, Han Dong-rim, is a novelist, while her younger brother, Han Kang-in, is a novelist and cartoonist.

At the age of nine, Han Kang moved to Suyu-ri in Seoul, when her father quit his teaching job to become a full-time writer, four months before the Gwangju Uprising, a pro-democracy movement that ended in the military's massacre of students and civilians.

Han Kang first learned about the massacre when she was 12, after discovering at home a secretly circulated memorial album of photographs taken by a German journalist, Jurgen Hinzpeter.

Han Kang's father struggled to make ends meet with his writing career, which negatively impacted his family.

Han Kang later described her childhood as "too much for a little child"; however, being surrounded by books gave her comfort.

In 1993, Han Kang graduated from Yonsei University, where she majored in Korean language and literature.

Han Kang made her fiction debut the next year, under the name Han Kang-hyun, when her short story "The Scarlet Anchor" won the New Year's Literary Contest held by the Seoul Shinmun.

In 2007, Han Kang published a book, A Song to Sing Calmly, that was accompanied by a music album.

Han Kang was the first Korean writer to be nominated for the award, and The Vegetarian was the first Korean language novel to win the International Booker Prize for fiction.

Han Kang received the Premio Malaparte for the Italian translation of Human Acts, Atti Umani, by Adelphi Edizioni, in Italy on 1 October 2017.

In 2025, Han Kang was among 414 South Korean writers who were signatories to a petition urging the Constitutional Court of Korea to uphold the impeachment of suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law declaration.

Han Kang was married to Hong Yong-hee, a literary critic and professor at Kyung Hee Cyber University.

In 2024, Han Kang stated that they had been divorced for many years.

Han Kang has a son, and together they had run a bookstore in Seoul from 2018 until November 2024, when she stepped down from its management.

Han Kang has said that she suffers from periodic migraines and credits them with "keeping her humble".

Han Kang won the Yi Sang Literary Award for Mongolian Mark, the 25th Korean Novel Award for her novella Baby Buddha in 1999, the 2000 Today's Young Artist Award from the Korean Ministry of Culture, and the 2010 Dongri Literary Award for The Wind is Blowing.

In 2018, Han Kang became the fifth writer chosen to contribute to the Future Library project.

Katie Paterson, the project's organizer, said that Han Kang had been chosen because she "expands our view of the world".

Han Kang delivered the manuscript, Dear Son, My Beloved, in May 2019.

Han Kang was elected a Royal Society of Literature International Writer in 2023.

In 2024, Han Kang was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature by the Swedish Academy for her "intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life".

Han Kang herself said she was surprised but honoured by the recognition.

Han Kang delivered her Nobel lecture, titled Light and Thread, on 7 December 2024 at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.

Lim adapted Baby Buddha into a screenplay, in collaboration with Han Kang, and directed the film version.