Song Sokze


Song Sokze is a South Korean writer, poet and painter.

Biography

Song was born on July 5, 1960, in Sangju, South Korea. He studied law at Yonsei University in Seoul, Song made his literary debut in 1986 when he had five poems published in the Munhak-sasang in 1986. In 1991 he published a poetry collection and then moved to writing "very short" stories that he conceived of as between poetry and short stories. Song continued to work at a day job for six years, until 1993, when he quit and devoted himself to writing and had his first short story "The Final 4.5 Seconds of My Life" published in the Summer Issue of Munhakdongne in 1995.

Work

Song's works focus on ordinary character, often those at the edges of society, and he gives these characters a mixture of cleverness and naivete, then drops them into unlikely situations. His work is intentionally humorous, to the point that they have even been criticized for that humor.
The Literature [Translation Institute of Korea] summarizes Song's work:

Works in Translation

English
German
  • Die letzten viereinhalb Sekunden meines Lebens
Chinese
  • 纯情神偷
French
  • A QUI MIEUX MIEUX

Works in Korean (Partial)

Short Story Collections
  • Turned Into A Bird
  • Fun-filled Life
  • Possessed
  • Thus Spoke Hwang Man Geun ;
Novella
  • I Saw A Tiger
Novels
  • Innocence,
  • Human Strength.

Awards