Kim Eom-ji

Kim Eom-ji was born 1988 in Seoul. She began her literary career when her short story Dwaejiuri (돼지우리 Pig Pen) was awarded the 2010 New Writer’s Award From Literature and Society. She published a short story collection Miraereul domohaneun bangsik gaundae (미래를 도모하는 방식 가운데 Among the Ways of Planning for the Future), and a novel Jumal, chulgeun, sanchaek, eodu-umgwa bi (주말, 출근, 산책: 어두움과 비 Weekend, Going to Work, Taking a Walk: Darkness and Rain). She is a member of the literary group Mugachi. She was awarded the 23rd Kim Jun-seong Literary Award in 2016.

The most distinct characteristic in Kim Eom-ji’s writing is the repetition of meaningless daily life, and anonymity. Characters in Kim Eom-ji’s stories are generally not given names, and are called only by their initials. They don’t have any distinguishing characteristics, they cannot properly accomplish anything such as dating, finding a job, or living a married life, and they don’t have any ambition for the future. Not only do the characters not have anything special about them, but it is hard to find any particular events in Kim Eom-ji’s stories. Her stories have a characteristic of feeling like something almost happened, but did not, and not even giving a slight hint of something happening. Through the meager lives of people caught in the meaningless repetition of daily life, Kim Eom-ji’s stories portray a listless life in which a future cannot be imagined.

A weekend of laundry or no laundry; the same commute to work, lunch, and commute back; the few drinks accompanied by side dishes, slightly different each time; meaningless conversations with colleagues everyday; and then again a weekend of laundry or no laundry; commute to work; commute back; drinks; a walk. Such repetitive daily life is pretty much all of what happens in Kim Eom-ji’s stories. What Kim Eom-ji’s stories show is a world of no disasters or even accidents. It is a world of ‘worthlessness’ where no event that is memorable or meaningful, ever happens. In such a world, the protagonist lives by only timidly striving for basic desires, food, sleep, and sex. Kim Eom-ji narrates such characters’ lives that are meaningless, repetitive, and without any achievements, through a concise style of writing, and the repetition of discontinuous scenes. By portraying the view of the inner side of the protagonist who has lost the ability to imagine for the future, the author evokes the instability of young people in their 20s and 30s.

• Miraereul domohaneun bangsik gaundae (미래를 도모하는 방식 가운데 Among the Ways of Planning for the Future), 2015.
• Jumal, chulgeun, sanchaek, eodu-umgwa bi (주말, 출근, 산책: 어두움과 비 Weekend, Going to Work, Taking a Walk: Darkness and Rain), 2015.

• Kim Jun-seong Literary Award, 2016.