Hwang Sun-mi
황선미
Hwang Sun-mi (born 1963) is a South Korean author and professor who is best known for her fable Madangeul naon amtak (마당을 나온 암탉 The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly).LifeBorn in 1963 as the second of five children, Hwang Sun-mi was unable to attend middle school due to poverty but, thanks to a teacher who gave her a key to a classroom, she was able to go to the school and read books whenever she wanted. She enrolled in high school by taking a certificate examination and she graduated from the creative writing departments at Seoul Institute of the Arts and Gwangju University, and from graduate school at Chung-Ang University. She lives in Seoul, South Korea.Hwang is an adjunct professor at Seoul Institute of the Arts. Hwang`s career as a writer began in 1995 when she won the Children`s Literature Critics Award for Newcomers (아동문학평론 신인문학상) for the short story `Guseula, Guseula` (구슬아, 구슬아 Guseul, Guseul) and the Farmers` Literary Award (농민문학상) for the novella Maeume simneun kkot (마음에 심는 꽃 Flowers Planted in Hearts). Since then she has published nearly 30 books over various genres. She is most famous for her work The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, which was also made into a movie that broke Korean box office records for animated films, earning nearly 7 billion won in its first month of release.WritingUpon its publication in 2000, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly became an instant classic, remaining on bestseller lists for ten years, selling over 2 million copies, and inspiring the highest-grossing animated film in Korean history. It has also been adapted into a comic book, a play, and a musical, and has been translated into 27 languages. The author said in an interview that she had based her book around her farmer father`s sad and struggling life.[1] Hwang`s work addresses the intersections between tradition and modernity, ecology, and the search for freedom. She is most known for her fantasy work and has won the SBS Media Literary Award (SBS 미디어 문학상, 2001) and the 36th Sejong Children`s Literature Prize (세종 어린이 문학상, 2003).References[1] `Korean fable captures hearts of readers around the world`. Korea Times. 2015-10-26.
