Nobel Literature Prize winner Han Kang talks about how writing connects her to readers
South Korean author Han Kang, this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, has spoken passionately about the process of writing and her evolution as a writer — all the way back to when she was 8 years old
STOCKHOLM (AP) — South Korean author Han Kang, this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, spoke passionately on Saturday about the process of writing and her evolution as a writer — all the way back to when she was 8 years old.
Han, the first Asian woman and the first South Korean writer to win the Nobel literature prize, was delivering her Nobel lecture in Stockholm, the Swedish capital. She described in a soft-spoken voice how in January she found an old shoe box containing several several diaries dating back to her childhood.
Among the stack of journals, she found a poem about love she had written. “The lines penned by my eight-year-old self were suitably innocent and unpolished,” she said.
Han was awarded for her novels, including “The Vegetarian” and “Human Acts,” that explore the pain of being human and the scars of Korea’s turbulent history. She is known for her experimental and often disturbing stories that incorporate the brutal moments of modern South Korea.
