South Korean author Han Kang has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature for her powerful poetic prose that addresses historical traumas and highlights the fragility of human life.
The 53-year-old is the first South Korean writer to receive this prestigious honor.
Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy’s Nobel Committee Mats Malm announced the award in Stockholm on Thursday.
Also, Nobel committee chairman Anders Olsson praised her, stating that she “confronts historical traumas and in each of her works exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in a poetic and experimental style, has become an innovator in contemporary prose.”
Kang launched her career in 1993 by publishing several poems in the magazine Literature and Society. She made her prose debut in 1995 with the short story collection, Love of Yeosu.
Her significant international breakthrough occurred with the novel The Vegetarian. Divided into three parts, this unsettling novel explores the devastating consequences of a woman’s decision to stop eating meat.
The literature prize has historically been male-dominated, with only 17 female laureates to date. The most recent female winner was France’s Annie Ernaux in 2022.
The prize includes a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million), originating from a bequest by the prize’s founder, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. In addition to the monetary award, recipients will receive a medal during the ceremony on December 10.