Kim Bo-young visiting Korea SF Convention 2018

Kim Bo-young (Korean: 김보영; born 1975) is a South Korean science fiction writer based in Gangwon Province, South Korea. In addition to her novels and short story collections, she has worked as a script advisor for Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer in 2013.[1] She is the first Korean science fiction author to be published by HarperCollins.[2]

Biography

Kim was born in 1975. Before her career as an author, she worked as a screenwriter, game developer, and graphic designer for the Korean computer game developer Garam & Baram.

In 2004, her first published work of fiction, The Experience of Touch, won the inaugural Korean Science & Technology Creative Writing Award.[3][4] She went on to win the annual South Korean SF Novel Award three separate times for The Seven Executioners (2013) in the novel category, The World's Fastest Person (2014) in the short story/novella category, and How Alike We Are (2017) in the short story/novella category.[5][6]

Kim's short stories are often rooted in or inspired by significant flashpoints in Korean society, such as the Sewol ferry disaster, and an incident informally dubbed 'Korean Gamergate' in which a voice actress for a prominent video game posted a photo of herself wearing a shirt with the words 'Girls Do Not Need a prince', which resulted in the actress losing her job.[7]

Until recently, Kim was one of the few Korean science fiction authors to be translated into English, partially as a result of her short story publication in Clarkesworld Magazine.[8] Kim's current works that have been translated into English are I'm Waiting for You (HarperVoyager, 2021, translated by Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu) and On the Origin of Species and Other Stories (Kaya Press, 2021). On the Origin of Species and Other Stories, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Joungmin Lee Comfort, was longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature.[9][10]

Selected works

References

  1. ^ "Bo-Young Kim |". Kaya Press. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  2. ^ "[Web Exclusive] Interview with Kim Bo-Young". Korean Literature Now (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2021-11-28. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  3. ^ Kim, Bo-young (2021-04-06). I'm Waiting for You: And Other Stories. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-295148-9.
  4. ^ "I'm Waiting For You: Kim Bo-Young in conversation with Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu | London Korean Links". 2021-05-28. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  5. ^ "Kim Bo-Young". Korean Literature Now (in Korean). Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  6. ^ Roh, Taehoon; Fulton, Bruce; Fulton, Ju-Chan (2021). "Genre Fiction in Korean Literature". Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture. 14 (14): 13–23. doi:10.1353/aza.2021.0003. ISSN 1944-6500. S2CID 238028913.
  7. ^ "Interview with Kim Bo-Young: Why the Stars Shine in Earth's Sky". Korean Literature Now (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2021-11-28. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  8. ^ "What's new with South Korean science fiction?". Amazing Stories. 2017-09-20. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  9. ^ "On the Origin of Species Listed on National Book Award Longlist for Translated Literature |". Kaya Press. 2021-09-20. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  10. ^ Kim, Bo-young (April 2021). I'm Waiting for You. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-0-00-843380-2.
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