Han Kang wins 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature
South Korean author Han Kang has won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature ‘for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life’.
Han is the author of five books that have appeared in English: The Vegetarian (2016, trans by Deborah Smith, Portobello)—which won the International Booker Prize, Human Acts (2017, trans by Deborah Smith, Portobello), The White Book (2018, trans by Deborah Smith, Portobello), Europa (2019, trans by Deborah Smith, Strangers Press) and Greek Lessons (2023, trans by Deborah Smith & E Yaewon, Penguin). An English translation of another novel—We Do Not Part (trans by E Yaewon & Paige Aniyah Morris, Hamish Hamilton)—is forthcoming next year. She is the first South Korean winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature—and also the first Asian woman to win the prize.
In a telephone interview shortly after the announcement, Han said: ‘Since when I was a child, I grew up with books in Korean and translated as well. So, I can say I grew up with Korean literature, which I feel very close to. So, I hope this news is nice for Korean literature readers and my friends, writers.’
Simon Prosser, publishing director at Hamish Hamilton in the UK, said of the author: ‘In writing of exceptional beauty and clarity she faces unflinchingly the painful question of what it means to be human—to be of a species which is simultaneously capable of acts of cruelty and acts of love. She sees and thinks and feels like no other writer. Her books are both a wonder and a gift, and I could not be happier for her as she is awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.’
Nobel committee chair Anders Olsson said Han ‘has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in a poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose’.
Han subsequently declined a press conference to celebrate the award. The ABC reported that her father, novelist Han Seung-won, told the media on her behalf: ‘She said that with the wars raging between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, with deaths being reported every day, she could not hold a celebratory press conference. She asked for understanding in this matter.’
The Nobel Prize for Literature carries a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.6m). Presentation of the winner medals will take place at a ceremony on 10 December.
Last year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was Norwegian author and playwright Jon Fosse.
Pictured: Han Kang. Photo credit: Lee Chunhee. Courtesy of Natur & Kultur, via Nobel Prize.
Category: International awards International news
