South Korean author Han Kang wins Nobel Literature Prize 2024
What's the story
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to South Korean author Han Kang "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life." The Swedish Academy in Stockholm awards the prize, with past recipients including Bob Dylan, Toni Morrison, and Winston Churchill. This will be the fourth Nobel awarded this week, following chemistry, physics, and medicine.
Biography
More about the winner Han Kang
Born in 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea, Han moved to Seoul with her family at the age of nine. Coming from a literary family—her father is a well-known novelist—Han has pursued not only writing but also art and music, influences that are evident throughout her body of literary work.
Career trajector
Han Kang began her literary career in 1993
Han started her literary career in 1993 with the publication of several poems in Literature and Society. She made her prose debut in 1995 with a short story collection and soon followed it with various other works, including both novels and short stories.
Twitter Post
Read: Swedish Academy's post on Han's body of work
2024 #NobelPrize laureate Han Kang’s major international breakthrough came with the novel 채식주의자 (2007; ‘The Vegetarian’, 2015). Written in three parts, the book portrays the violent consequences that ensue when its protagonist Yeong-hye refuses to submit to the norms of food… pic.twitter.com/uMnmnpn3NT
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 10, 2024
Nobel Prize in Literature
116 Nobel Prizes in Literature awarded since 1901
Since 1901, a total of 116 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded. The prize was not given during several years of the First and Second World Wars, specifically in 1914, 1918, 1935, and between 1940 and 1943. The youngest person to receive the award was Rudyard Kipling in 1907, at 41; the oldest was Doris Lessing—who received the prize in 2007 aged 87.