Quick Facts
Biography
Yun Ko-eun (Hangul: 윤고은; born 1980) is a South Korean writer. Yun's first novel Mujungryeok jeunghugun (무중력증후군 The Zero G Syndrome) put her on the literary map and is a prime example of her imaginative writing style. In the novel, the moon splits into two, then four, and finally into six moons one day, like a planarian. The strange phenomenon plunges people on Earth into chaos, stoking their lunar fantasies, apocalyptic fears, or desire to earn profit from these moons. Yun says she conceived the idea of splitting and multiplying moons when she was at a convenience store purchasing a bun that looked like a full moon. Then she took the idea and expanded it into a novel "like the leavening of bread." Yun often starts a story with an unusual premise and fleshes it out into a rich narrative.
Life
Yun Ko-eun is her pen name and her real name is Ko Eun-ju. She was born in 1980 in Seoul, South Korea. She studied creative writing at Dongguk University. She made her literary debut in 2004 when she won the 2nd Daesan Collegiate Literary Prize. Unlike Kim Ae-ran, who won the same prize the previous year and immediately came under the spotlight, Yun took a hiatus for several years following her win. In 2008, she reappeared in the literary scene by winning the 13th Hankyoreh Literary Award for her novel Mujungryeok jeunghugun (무중력증후군 The Zero G Syndrome). From then to 2017, she published three short story collections—Irinyong siktak (1인용 식탁 Table for One), Aloha (알로하 Aloha), and Neulgeun chawa hichihaikeo (늙은 차와 히치하이커 The Old Car and Hitchhiker)—and the novel Bamui yeohaengjadeul (밤의 여행자들 Travelers of the Night).
Despite having chosen to major in creative writing, she aspired to be a television writer or journalist during her time at Dongguk University. Prior to her literary debut, she ran a blog on which she posted short travelogues or entries about her everyday life. Now she uses the blog (http://blog.naver.com/shellmaker) as a platform to interact with readers.
For several years following her graduation, Yun took on various jobs including tutoring, writing for an in-house periodical, and creating educational material for children, yet she did not write any fiction even though she had already won the Daesan Collegiate Literary Prize. Then at one point she formed a writers club with old friends from Dongguk University. Two years later, she won the 13th Hankyoreh Literary Award with Mujungryeok jeunghugun. In 2016, she participated in the Overseas Translation Workshop Program held by MCST and LTI Korea at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in France. She has named Kenji Maruyama and Martin Page as her favorite authors outside of Korea.
Writing
Mujungryeok jeunghugun, Yun Ko-eun's first breakthrough novel, begins with the following provocative sentence: "Loneliness is the best Viagra." Literary critic Do Jeong-il and writers Hwang Sok-yong and Kim Insuk, who judged the Hankyoreh Literary Award and selected Mujungryeok jeunghugun as the winning work, writes that it "figuratively and humorously depicts the sense of alienation people feel in today's society. The weight of their alienation is portrayed lightly, and the intensity of their pains cheerfully." The figurative language, humor, and light-heartedness that the judges identified as Yun's strengths can also be found in her later works. A young author, Yun pokes fun at and ridicules social ills or injustices rather than outright condeming or exposing them.
Literary critic Gang Ji-hui says "Yun Ko-eun seems to have earned a reputation for distorting reality with whimsical imagination." On Yun's narrative structure, Gang notes: "The characters in Yun Ko-eun's novels typically follow a curve that starts from zero, increases in entropy as some imaginative event unfolds, hits peak levels, and falls back down to zero."
Such characteristics are also evident in Yun's 2016 short story collection Neulgeun chawa hichihaikeo (늙은 차와 히치하이커 The Old Car and Hitchhiker). A review summarizes the collection as follows: "Yun Ko-eun's third short story collection Neulgeun chawa hichihaikeo consists of eight stories that bring readers to the boundaries between reality and imagination. Some of these stories tip the scales toward the side of imagination: "Y-ray" is about a 'y-ray' machine, a defective product manufactured in an x-ray machine factory, that goes on to diagnose certain individuals as potential dissidents who must be shunned from society; "Bultaneun jakpum" (불타는 작품 Burning Works of Art) involves a residency program that invites artists to create artwork over six months, exhibits their completed works once, then burns them up; "Daokjeong chilbeonji" (다옥정 7번지 Daokjeong Number 7) presumes that 1930s Korean writer Park Taewon comes back from the dead in 21st-century Seoul and guides tourists around the places in which his novel is set." (The novel mentioned here refers to Park Taewon's A Day in the Life of Kubo the Novelist). Despite their fantastical nature, Yun Ko-eun's stories do not lead readers to a state of actual zero gravity, but to an illusion of it, as the term "Zero G Syndrome" indicates. The illusion is born from the imagination and desires of people whose lives are firmly grounded in reality.
Works
Short Story Collections
1. 『늙은 차와 히치하이커』, 한겨레출판, 2016년. ISBN 9788984319837
The Old Car and Hitchhiker. Hanibook, 2016.
2. 『알로하』, 창비, 2014년, ISBN 9788936437312
Aloha. Changbi, 2014.
3. 『1인용 식탁』, 문학과지성사, 2010년, ISBN 9788932020495
Table for One. Moonji, 2010.
Novels
1. 『밤의 여행자들』, 민음사, 2013년, ISBN 9788937473036
Travelers of the Night. Minumsa, 2013.
2. 『무중력 증후군』, 윤고은, 한겨레출판, 2008년, ISBN 9788984312760
The Zero G Syndrome. Hanibook, 2008.
Awards
1. 2015: Kim Yong Ik Literary Award for Aloha (알로하 Aloha)
2. 2011: 12th Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award for "Haema, nalda" (해마, 날다 The Hippocampus Flies)
3. 2008: 13th Hankyoreh Literary Award for Mujungryeok jeunghugun (무중력증후군 The Zero G Syndrome)
4. 2004: 2nd Daesan Collegiate Literary Prize for "Pieosing" (피어싱 Piercing)