Kim Yeonsu


Kim Yeonsu is a South Korean writer.

Life

Kim Yeonsu was born in Kimcheon, Kyeongsangbuk-do in 1970. He graduated with a degree in English literature from Sungkyunkwan University in Korea. After graduation, Kim was an office worker by day, a translator at night, and spent the remainder of his time writing novels. In 1997, Kim worked as a reporter for a woman's magazine, and this experience was also key to his outlook that daily life is difficult.

Work

Kim made his debut in 1993 with a poem in the journal Jakka Segye and the next year published a novel Walking While Pointing to the Mask. He is one of the most well-received Korean writers since 2000, and also a best-selling author in Korea. For example, his work World’s End Girlfriend, published in 2009, sold 40,000 copies in less than three months of publication.
Kim's literary world is shaped by his study of the humanities and at is heavily influenced by the Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges, whose impact is especially evident in his first collection of short stories, Twenty Years Old.
Kim did not content himself with a place in the shadow of a literary great. His third novel, Goodbye, Yi Sang was met with a critical reception worthy of a masterpiece at the very pinnacle of humanistic imagination. To be sure, Borgesian influence is still unmistakable, but only in the background: the novel, as a whole, is animated by the author's own meticulous and in-depth study of Yi Sang, the Korean existentialist writer of the 1930s who produced some of the most exotic and complex stories in Korean literary history. Goodbye, Yi Sang is concerned with the question of truth and of existence as well as the very definition of literature which, in Kim's view, are not mutually exclusive. “The reason why I write,” the author has said,” is to find out whether the truth does indeed exist in the act of writing."
When I Was Still A Child, which first appeared in serial form, is a collection of stories based on his childhood and adolescence. Although it was written with considerable ease and employs much lighter tone of voice than Goodbye, Yi Sang, the stories in this collection provide yet another venue for exploring the nature of truth, which has always remained the focus of Kim's interest.
As a young author, Kim's works are just now being translated. To this date, only one short essay and several short stories referenced below have been translated into English. Rather, more of his works are translated into Japanese, French, and Russian. World’s End Girlfriend, ''Wonder Boy, The Country of the Blind, and other short stories are published in Japanese. So You Love Me, Seonnyeong, If the Waves Belong to the Sea, and I am a Ghost Writer are translated into French. World’s End Girlfriend and Wonder Boy are also published in Russian, I am a Ghost Writer is published in German, and again, World's End Girlfriend'' in Chinese.

Awards

First Place
Runner-ups

Works in English

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Works in Korean (Partial)

;Collections
  • 《Twenty Years Old 》
  • 《When I Was Still A Child 》
  • 《I am a Ghost Writer 》
  • 《World's End Girlfriend 》
  • 《Mi in April, Sol in July 》
;Long Fiction
  • 《Walking While Pointing to the Mask 》
  • 《Route 7 》
  • 《Goodbye, Yi Sang 》
  • 《So You Love Me, Seonnyeong 》
  • 《Whoever You Are, No Matter How Lonely 》
  • 《The Night Sings 》
  • 《Route 7 Revisited 》
  • 《If the Waves Belong to the Sea 》
  • 《Wonder Boy 》
;Essays
  • 《Sentences of a Springtime 》
  • 《The Right to Travel 》
  • 김연수, 김중혁, 《A Spontaneous Happy-ending 》
  • 《The Moments We Shared: Novels 》
  • 《The Moments We Shared: Poems 》
  • 《Saying that I Won't Lose 》
  • 《Sentences of a Springtime+ 》
  • 《The Work of a Novelist 》
  • 《Someday, Probably 》
;Chapters
  • "행복해지거든," "나무들 사이로 바다를 보다," "희망봉에 서서," "나도 웃으니까," "반가워. 내가 네 아빠야!," "시간이 사라진다면," "한바탕 웃을 때마다," "내가 바라는 것," 《사람은 사람을 부른다》
  • "The River of Love Flows Only Downward," 《Slowly, I started Crying 》
  • "Buddhism is about Thinking with Heart," 《I am Ordained in Literature 》
  • "So Tell Me Again, Tiresias," 《The Country of the Blind 》
  • "Finding Traces of Exchanges Among Civilizations from Silk Road," 《Silk Road, Finding a Road on the Road 》
  • "A Spring Day that Returns after Meeting the Things that Pass Us by," 《The Person Who We Cherished: About Park Wan-suh 》
  • 김연수, 노승영, "A Puzzle Called Yeonsu Kim," 《This is my Axt 》
  • "The 15 Pages that No One in the World Writes For You," 《Autobiographical Essays of the Yi Sang Literary Prize Winners 》
  • "Review of The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll," 《World Literature Read by Korean Authors 》
;Translations