Kim Jae-young

Kim Jae-young (born November 1966) (Hangul: 김재영) is a South Korean writer and professor. She is an author that articulates pressing societal issues such as diaspora and neoliberalism from the perspectives of the marginalized and minorities. Kokkiri (코끼리 Elephant), which represents migrant workers’ issues through the use of mythic and archetypal symbols, is her most representative work. Life Born in 1966 in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea Kim moved to Seoul during her elementary school years and went to Ssangmun Elementary, Dobong Girls Middle School and Songgok Girls High School. She enjoyed writing children's poems during elementary school so much that she independently created her own collection of children's poetry. In her third year of middle school, she read Yi Sang’s 1936 short story “Nalgae” (날개 Wings) during Korean language class and became interested in novels. It was because of this interest that she also later joined and became active in her high school's literary club. While still in high school, Kim began writing literature and in 1985 she enrolled in SungKyunKwan University where she majored in Family Management. She was primarily interested in dramatic arts, but in her junior year was deeply affected by the Workers Struggle of June 1987. She was elected president of the College of Life Sciences, but was eventually expelled from school. Kim worked for a time as an assistant for National Federation of Street Vendors and eventually married and had two sons. As she entered her thirties, she thoughtlessly began writing novels without any sort of special preparation. This was largely due to her dissatisfaction with the huildam munhak (“literature of reminiscence” or “epilogue novels”) trend that was popular in the 1990s. The author, after having directly participated in the 1980s democratization movements, stated that she felt dejected and dissatisfied in seeing the denigration of this fervor for change within huildam literature. However, huildam literature was a short-lived trend and Kim made her debut in 2000 with the short story “Tto dareun gyejeol” (또 다른 계절 Yet Another Season) which dealt with her personal experience of her father's death at a young age. She returned to university at Chungang University where she completed the professionals course, and went on to the Chungang Graduate School. Kim spent a year in New York when her husband had a visiting professorship at Columbia University. While there she wrote diasporic stories.