Kim Junghyuk (born 1971) is a Korean author.
1. Life
Kim Junghyuk was born in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province. After graduating from Keimyung University with a degree in Korean literature, he worked as a freelance writer, contributing to music, food, and travel magazines. He also worked for an online bookstore, writing professional book reviews, while drawing cartoons for a webzine. Kim made his literary debut in 2000, publishing the novella Penggwin nyuseu (펭귄뉴스 Penguin News) in Literature and Society.
In 2008, Kim won the Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award for his short story "Eotbakja D" (엇박자 D Syncopation D). He is also the recipient of the Munhakdongne Young Writers' Award for 1F/B1 (1F/B1 First Floor, Basement Floor), the Lee Hyoseok Literary Award for "Yoyo" (요요 Yoyo), and the Dong-in Literary Award for "Gajja pallo haneun poong" (가짜 팔로 하는 포옹 Hugging with Fake Arms), among others. Kim has illustrated the covers of his own books on occasion, including those for Penggwin nyuseu, Mworado doegetji (뭐라도 되겠지), and Miseuteo monoreil (미스터 모노레일 Mr. Monorail).
In recent years, Kim has appeared on the panel of KBS variety programs such as Joy of Conversation and The Book U Love, as well as co-hosting B tv's Yeonghwadang with the critic Lee Dong-jin, with whom he previously worked on a podcast.
2. Writing
Kim Junghyuk has a knack for unconventional, often geeky subjects. "Syncopation D" and "Yuribangpae" (유리방패 The Glass Shield) from his second collection of short stories, Akgideurui doseogwan (악기들의 도서관 The Library of Instruments), use their subjects to great effect in reconstructing the reality of Korean youth today. "Syncopation D" features a cast of tone-deaf characters that form a popular musical group, while "The Glass Shield" depicts performance artists who consider their work as play. The author thus takes a lighthearted approach to the reality of Korea’s 880,000-Won Generation, the equivalent of Europe’s 1,000-Euro Generation, while seeking alternatives to the aggressively neo-liberalist society we live in today.[1]
Kim's first novel, Jombi (좀비 Zombies), presents an ontological portrait of the powerlessness and sorrow of humanity in the midst of a series of disasters which befall the highly individual characters one after another like dominoes. With people who take joy in killing zombies, and others who oppose them and try to save the zombies, the novel reveals how bizarre and twisted human life really is.[2]
Of his early writing Kim has said, "If my first collection of short stories, Penguin News, is about things, my second collection, The Library of Instruments, is about sounds, and my third, 1F/B1, is about spaces. If I put the focus on things in the past, this time, I started out with spaces and people who live in those spaces...I came to take an interest in extinction because I was talking about people who grow old or go extinct in spaces, and the lives of those people."[3]
More recently, Kim has leaned into his interstellar imagination, venturing into futuristic, alt-fantasy territory. His fourth novel, Naneun nongdamida (나는 농담이다 I’m a Joke), uses a distinct first-person voice to convey the rants and confessions of a character adrift in space, and the efforts of his younger brother to deliver him a letter written by their late mother.[4] In Dangsinui geurimjaneun woryoil (당신의 그림자는 월요일 Your Shadow is a Monday) and its follow-up, Dilliteo - sarajige haedeurimnida (딜리터 - 사라지게 해드립니다 Deleter: Disappeared upon Request), Kim plays with the concept of a "deleter," a professional who tracks down and destroys physical objects in the former case, and, more sinisterly, people in the latter.
Reference
[1] Korean Literature Now. Vol. 27, Spring 2015. https://kln.or.kr/lines/essaysView.do?bbsIdx=1506
[2] Korean Literature Now. Vol. 33, Autumn 2016 https://kln.or.kr/strings/tklView.do?bbsIdx=1481
[3] Korean Literature Now. Vol. 17, Autumn 2012. https://kln.or.kr/frames/interviewsView.do?bbsIdx=515
[4] Korean Literature Now. Vol. 34, Winter 2016. https://kln.or.kr/strings/tklView.do?bbsIdx=1402
