Son Sohui

Son Sohui (, September 12, 1917 – January 7, 1987) was a South Korean writer of novels and short stories. A leading woman writer in the colonial and postwar periods, she is considered one of the first Korean authors to address women's psychological struggles in fiction.

Early life and education Son Sohui was born in 1917 in North Hamgyong Province's Eorang township, Kyongsong County, in what is now North Korea.

After graduating from a girls' school in Hamhung in 1936, she traveled to study English at Japan's Nihon University, but she dropped out of the program after a short period. After returning to Korea following Korean independence from Japan in 1945, Son Sohui continued to write and publish her work, with several poems published in the influential monthly magazine Sinsedae, and many short stories written. She also addressed gender and ethnic issues during the Japanese occupation, becoming a leading female novelist of the Japanese colonial period. In 1961 she was the recipient of both the Seoul Culture Award and the May Literary Award. In the 1980s and 90s, her work was also included in translation in the anthologies Modern Korean Short Stories and Modern Korean Literature: An Anthology.

Personal life, death, and legacy Son Sohui was the second wife of fellow writer Kim Dongni, whom she married in 1953 and also collaborated with.

She died in 1987. In 2012 she was featured in the YoungIn Museum of Literature's exhibit "Korean Women’s Literature 30 Years."

Selected works Works in translation (partial) The Wind from the South , tr. Suzanne Crowder, 1988 "At the End of the World", tr. Kim Chong-un (in Postwar Korean Short Stories, ed. Kim Chong-un, 1984; Hospital Room 205 and Other Korean Short Stories, 1983) "The Afternoon of Mellow Persimmons", tr. Angela Chung (in Modern Korean Literature: An Anthology 1908-65, ed. Chong Chung-Wha, 1995; Modern Korean Short Stories, ed. Chong Chung-Wha, 1980)

Works in Korean (partial) The Valley of the Sun The Sun, That Day Conversion Iragi Hyeonhaetan South Wind Season of Primary Colours The Raven's Cry