South Korean author Han Kang wins Nobel Prize in Literature, first for country

STOCKHOLM: South Korean writer Han Kang (53) won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. The prize money is 11 lakh dollars. This is the first literature Nobel to come to South Korea.

'Han Kang has an awareness of the relationship between body and soul, the living and the dead. The Nobel committee described the writings as exposing historical trauma and the frailty of human life through the intensity of poetic prose.

Han Kang is the daughter of famous South Korean novelist Han Seung Won. Han, who studied Korean literature at Yonsei University, initially wrote poems. In 1993, she published her first poetry collection, which included the popular poem 'Winter in Seoul'. The following year, the novel Red Anchor won first place in the Soul Literary Competition. The short stories 'Fruits of My Woman' and 'Fire Salamander', the novels 'Black Deer', 'Your Cold Hands', 'The Vegetarian', 'Breath Fighting', 'Greek Lessons', 'Human Acts', 'The White Book', 'I Do Not Bid Farewell' and the poetry collection 'I Put the Evening in the Drawer' were released.

'The Vegetarian' won the 2016 International Booker Prize. This is the first time that the Booker Prize has come to South Korea. Han is a creative writing teacher at Seoul Institute of Arts and a musician.