Han Kang

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Born in South Korea in 1970, Han Kang made her literary debut as a poet in 1993. She has since published novels and short fiction and won the Yi Sang Literary Prize, the Today’s Young Artist Award, the Manhae Literary Prize, and the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. She currently works as a professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. The Vegetarian, Deborah Smith’s English translation of one of Han Kang’s five novels, won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.

  • The cover to We Do Not Part: A Novel by Han Kang

    We Do Not Part: A Novel by Han Kang

    Han Kang
    New York. Hogarth. 2025. 272 pages. Han Kang, the 2024 Nobel laureate, is still overcome by the violence that laces Korea’s warring past. Her compelling writing attempts to resuscitat…
  • The cover to The White Book by Han Kang

    The White Book by Han Kang

    Han Kang
    New York. Hogarth. 2019. 160 pages. Han Kang’s The White Book is a meditation on grief using a study of white objects in the author’s life to spark memories of events she did—and did not—expe…
  • The cover to Human Acts by Han Kang , A photo of reviewer Krys Lee

    Human Acts by Han Kang

    Han Kang
    London. Portobello Books. 2016. 224 pages. Human Acts is a very different novel from The Vegetarian, Han Kang’s first novel recently published in English to numerous accolades, inclu…
  • A collage of 13 books recommended by Han Kang

    A Contemporary Korean Reading List

    May 2016
    Han Kang
      Han Kang recommends these 13 contemporary Korean books available in English. Click here to read Krys Lee's 2016 interview with Han Kang. Hwang Jeong-Eun One Hundred Shadows Trans. Jung Yewo…
  • The cover to The Vegetarian by Han Kang

    The Vegetarian by Han Kang

    Han Kang
    New York. Hogarth. 2016. 192 pages.  Han Kang’s The Vegetarian is a taut novel that tells the story of two sisters—Yeong-hye and In-hye—and their marriages. Told in three parts, each a novell…