Yun Dae-nyeong is a South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

n writer.

Life

Yun Dae-nyeong was born in 1962 in Yesan, South Chungcheong Province. He graduated from Danguk University with a degree in French Language and Literature. He admitted, however, that in his college days he attended more Korean literature classes than French ones. His early boyhood was spent with his grand-parents before he joined his parents at the age of eight. Yun's family was semi-nomadic and he lived in a variety of places, but always in poverty. His habit of reading seems to have been established very early and by the time he attended junior high school, he devoured all the books that he could find around him.

Yun wrote his first story as a senior high school student. During that year he continued writing, and was eager to win the entry prize at spring literary contests. In 1988, while he was a senior, his novel, "A Circle," won the second best award at the spring literary contest sponsored by Daejeonilbo.

Work

Yun's first short story, “Circle” (Won), was published in Daejeon News (Daejeon Ilbo) in 1988 and republished in Literary Thought (Munhak sasang) in 1990. With his following works, “My Mother’s Forest” (Eomma ui sup), “Silverfish Memorandum” (Euno naksi tongsin), “A Memorandum: Miari, 9 January 1993” (1/9/93 Miari tongsin), and “Once in a While, a Cow Visits a Motel” (Soneun yeogwan euro deuleo onda gakkeum), Yoon Daenyeong established a reputation as a writer who captures the ethos and sensibilities of Korean people during 1990s.
Yun Dae-nyeong made his major literary debut in 1990 as the winner of the New Writer Award from the monthly Munhak Sasang (Literary Thought). This was the first of many awards including Today’s Young Artist Award (1994), Yi Sang Literary Award

Yi Sang Literary Award

The Yi Sang Literary Award is a South Korean literary award. It is one of South Korea's most prestigious literary awards named after Yi Sang, an innovative writer in modern Korean literature. The Yi Sang Literary Award was established in 1977...

(1996), Modern Literature Prize (1998), and Yi Hyo-seok Literary Award (2003). Yun has written extensively: short story collections Sweetfish Fishing Reports, Behold the Southern Stairs, Many Stars Drifted to One Place, and There Walks Someone; and essay collections including; Things I Want to Tell Her and Mother’s Spoon and Chopsticks; and novels I Went to See an Old Movie, Mi-ran, A Traveler in the Snow, Between Heaven and Earth, and Why Did the Tiger Go to the Sea?

Works in English

• Between Heaven and Earth, trans. by Kim Sul Ja
• The Silver Trout Fishing Network, trans. by Young-Jun Lee

Works in Korean (Partial)

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS:

Sweetfish Fishing Reports

Behold the Southern Stairs

Many Stars Drifted to One Place

There Walks Someone

ESSAY COLLECTIONS:

'Things I Want to Tell Her

Mother’s Spoon and Chopsticks

NOVELS:

I Went to See an Old Movie

Mi-ran, A Traveler in the Snow

Between Heaven and Earth

Why Did the Tiger Go to the Sea?'

External links

• KLTI'S Author Page
• English Review of Between Heaven and Earth at KTLIT