Gi Hyeong-do

Early life Ki was born the youngest of seven siblings on Yeonpyeongdo, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. His father hailed from Hwanghae Province in present-day North Korea, which he fled amid the turmoil of the Korean War (1950–53). His father remained on the island working as a county-level functionary until 1964, when he moved with his family to the peninsular mainland, settling in Soha Village, Gyeonggi Prefecture (present-day Soha District, Gwangmyeong). While growing up in a shanty town west of Incheon in an area known for its communities of displaced refugees and evacuees, Gi attended Siheung Elementary School where he proved a top student, his awards for outstanding performance filling up a ramyeon box.

Ki's father built the family home and at first made a good living as a farmer. When a promising business deal fell through, however, family fortunes declined and then further worsened with the father's collapse from cerebral palsy in 1969. The family's plot of land had to be sold to pay for the father's medical expenses. Ki's prose poem "Genealogy in Jeopardy-1969" describes the sombre mood of his home life during this period. In 1986, he requested to be transferred from the Politics section to the Culture section where he covered cultural events, publications and TV dramas. In the summer of 1988, he traveled alone to London and Paris. He transferred again to the Editing section the same year.

Collections Black Leaf in My Mouth (Ib sog-ui geomeun ip 1989) Records of a Short Journey (1990) Losing Love, I Write (Sarang-eul ilko na-neun sseune 1994) Complete Works of Gi Hyeong-do (1999)

Awards Yun Dong-ju Literature Award (1982)