Jung Young-moon

Jung Young-moon (; born 1965) is a South Korean writer.

Biography Jung Young-moon was born in Hamyang, South Korea in 1965. He graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in psychology. His literary début was in 1996 with the novel A Man Who Barely Exists. Jung is also an accomplished translator who has translated more than forty books from English into Korean. In 1999 he won the 12th Dongseo Literary Award with his collection of short stories, A Chain of Dark Tales. In 2003, the Korean National Theater produced his play The Donkeys. In 2005 Jung was invited to participate in the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, and in 2010 the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Korea Study invited him to participate in a three-month-long residency program.

Work Jung's debut, the novel A Man who Barely Exists was published in Jakga Segye (Writer's World) in 1996, and as a novel two years later. The novel portrays a man mired in ennui, in which state he contemplates the meaning of life. Following this he released collections and novels including Black Chain Stories (1998), Pale Soliloquy (2000), Yawn (2006) and, most recently, A Contrived World (2012). Black Chain Stories (A Chain of Dark Tales, in English publication) is a collection of Kafkaesque short stories (some extremely short), which delve into the question of what being means, and what the loss of being means.

In contrast to his earlier works, which focused on demons and death, his recent works frequently feature animals or recurring images of forests. Hs most recent publication, Afternoon With a Faun, contains three linked stories, titled "Animals' Songs of Boredom or Anger." In the stories, owls, cats, rabbits, fish, and other animals appear, along with the forest in which they live. In "Something With a Chicken," even a contemptuous myna bird makes an appearance. The denial of human values spurs an interest in "beings that are not human." His works, which disrupt the distinctions between reality and fantasy, human and inhuman, meaning and non-meaning, can be understood as scorn towards an absurd social reality. In that sense, his works are frequently compared to Kafka's.

Awards 1999 Dongseo Literary Award 2012 Han Moo-sook Literary Award 2012 Dong-in Literary Award ) 2012 Daesan Literary Award

Works in English A Chain of Dark Tales (Stallion Press, 2011) A Most Ambiguous Sunday and Other Stories (Dalkey Archive Press, 2013) Mrs. Brown (Asia Publishers, 2013) Vaseline Buddha (Deep Vellum Publishing, 2016) Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River (Deep Vellum Publishing, 2019)

Works in Korean (Partial) A Man who Barely Exists (1996) Black Chain Stories (1998) Pale Soliloquy (2000) Yawn (2006) A Contrived World (2012)