Choi Jin-young

Choi Jin Young (Hangul 최진영; born 1981) is a South Korean writer. She writes primarily about the contradictions of Korean society and its restless youths who have no sense of purpose in their lives. Choi exposes social problems using simple and clear language. She describes her work and writing process as follows:

“I deal with heavy themes and my narrative voice is fairly intense as well. So I pay careful attention to crafting sentences that are as easy to understand as possible. I’d like readers to breeze through my books, then take some time to think about their themes. I don’t want them to spend too long struggling with complicated sentences. I’d rather they spend that time contemplating the stories themselves. When I write, I try to write a novel that my mother can read. That helps me write concisely and cleanly. I focus on writing something that wouldn’t be too difficult to read for even an elderly audience.”

Life Choi Jin Young was born in 1981. She studied Korean literature at Duksung Women's University and wrote poetry during her time there. After graduating, she began writing fiction while working part-time as an instructor at a cram school. She taught Korean literature to middle school students during the day and wrote stories at night. Choi says she took up writing purely for her own satisfaction and comfort, and calls her early work “kitchen-table fiction,” a term sometimes used, notably by writers Haruki Murakami and Kim Yeonsu, to refer to fiction written by non-professional writers at the kitchen table after coming home from their day jobs. A short story she wrote at the time received the New Writer's Award presented by the quarterly literary journal Literature and Practice in 2006, which marks her official literary debut. She decided to try writing a full-length novel before it was too late, and after three failed attempts, she won the Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2010 for Dangsin yeopeul seucheogan geu sonyeoui ireumeun (당신 옆을 스쳐간 그 소녀의 이름은 The Name of the Girl Who Brushed Against You Is...).

According to an interview, Choi treats writing like an office job. She wakes up at eight in the morning and writes during regular business hours. After “clocking out,” she reads or watches movies in the evening. Averse to socializing, she spends most of her time in her room or goes on walks alone. In university she had few friends, preferring to haunt the school library instead. She claims that she does not have any close colleagues with whom she exchanges manuscripts and shares feedback. She has received no formal training on creative writing and learned solely from reading books by her favorite authors, such as Lee Mun Ku, Jeon Sungtae, Franz Kafka, and Cormac McCarthy.

Writing On Paengi (팽이 The Top), Choi Jin Young's first short story collection dealing with various themes, literary critic Gang Gyeong-seok writes:

As Gang Gyeong-seok points out, Choi’s characters—ranging from low-income earners and contract workers to women, jobless youths, and teens—not only embody the world of pain and poverty they live in, but also channel their pent-up anxiety and despair into an explosive energy that fuels life itself.

Jeon Sungtae, a South Korean writer whom Choi has named as one of her favorite authors, discusses her writing style:

Works 『구의 증명』, 은행나무, 2015, { Proof of Gu. EunHaengNaMu, 2015. } 『나는 왜 죽지 않았는가』, 실천문학사, 2013. { Why Didn't I Die? Silcheon Munhak, 2013. } 『팽이』, 창비, 2013 { The Top. Changbi, 2013. } 『끝나지 않는 노래『, 한겨레출판사, 2011. { Unfinished Song. Hanibook, 2011. } 『당신 옆을 스쳐간 그 소녀의 이름은』, 한겨레출판사, 2010. { The Name of the Girl Who Brushed Against You Is…. Hanibook, 2010. } 『단 한 사람』, 한겨레출판사, 2023. ( Just One Person. Hanibook, 2023). 해가 지는 곳으로 (2017)

Awards 2014: Sin Dong-yup Prize for Literature 2010: The Hankyoreh Literary Award 2006: Literature and Practice Award for New Writers