| Im Chul-woo | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 15, 1954 |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | South Korea |
| Period | 1954-present |
Im Chul-woo (born 1954) (Hangul: 임) is a South Korean writer.
Contents |
Im Chul-woo was born October 15, 1954, on Wando Island in Jeollanam-do.[1] He moved to Gwangju at age 10 [2] and attended Sung-il High School there. He graduated from Jeonnam University with a degree in English Literature and completed graduate programs in English Literature at both Sogang University and Jeonnam University. Presently, he teaches Creative Writing at Hanshin University. Im was in Gwangju during the Gwangju Uprising and this critically influenced his outlook.[3] His work has centered around dramatizations of that event and works which more generally focus on issues of Korean separation.
His debut was The Dog Thief in 1981 [4] In 1985 he was awarded the 17th Korean Creative Writing Prize for The Land of My Father (Abeoji ui ttang) and in 1988 was awarded the 12th Yi Sang Literature Prize for The Red Room (Bulgeun bang), which has since been published in an anthology of the same name.
In 1994 Im’s novel, I Want to Go to the Island was made into a Korean movie, To the Starry Island.[5]
In 2010, Im’s work Wanting to Go Insane Yet Unable (Interdit de Folie), was translated into French by Choe Ae-young and Jean Bellemin-Nol.[6] As the title suggests, the book focuses on a highly traumatized Korean man in the 1980s, who would rather lose his sanity than continue to remember his painful personal memories.
My Father's Land (in The Star and Other Korean Short Stories)
The Red Room (in Red Room)
I Want to Go to the Island
Red Mountain, White Bird
Spring Day
Wanting to Go Insane Yet Unable