Kim Haki

Kim Haki (Hangul: 김하기) is a modern South Korean writer and ex political-prisoner.^[1]

Life

Kim Haki was born on June 24, 1958^[2] in Ulsan, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.^[3] Kim attended Busan National University, and after participating in the student movement was arrested in 1980 for demonstrating against the expansion of Korean Martial Law. Involved in the Burim incident, Kim was sentenced to ten years in prison, of which he served eight years, and was released in 1988.^[4]

Life

After his release from prison Kim became a full-time writer when he published A Young Man Imprisoned, which was a collection of poems and letters he had composed while imprisoned. In 1989 his story Living Tomb was published in Changbi Magazine. Kim's short story collection Complete Union won the first Im Sygyeong Unification Literary Award and in 1992 he received the 10th Shing Dong-yeop Creative Fund for Writers Prize.^[5] Some critics have characterized Kims criticized his works as being too schematic; however Kim has certainly publicized the problem of long-term prisoners through his works.^[6]

Works in Translation

• Ginko Love

Works in Korean (Partial)

• A Perfect Encounter
• A Flight Without A Course

Awards

• Im Sugyeong Unification Literary Award
• Shing Dong-yeop Creative Fund for Writers Prize (1992)

References