Kim Jongil was born in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, in 1975. He graduated from Chungbuk National University's philosophy department. Kim made his literary debut in 2004 when his short story collection Mom (몸 Body) won the Golden Dragon Literary Award, a major genre literature award in Korea. Mom is composed of ten stories inspired by different body parts from eyes to nose, mouth, hands, hair, etc. Compared to the work of Ito Junji, the Japanese manga artist known for body horror, Mom however does not stop at horror but digs into a variety of social issues such as school violence, bullying, lookism, and ableism. Kim has spoken critically against genre literature, including horror, that neglects writing standards, taking great pains to ensure the quality of his own writing.
2. Writing
Kim's second work, the novel Sontop (손톱 Nails)(2008) takes inspiration from Yi Sang's poem "Geoul" (거울 Mirror) and Maori mythology. The protagonist, a nail artist, has nightmares in which she appears as a killer, divorced from her husband after her daughter was murdered by a kidnapper, only to wake up each time with a nail broken. Kim's social commentary in the form of horror is revisited in his 2011 novel, Samakdo (삼악도 Samakdo), which paints a damning picture of the hardships faced by artists and the dire state of genre fiction in Korea. Out of all the genre fiction published in Korea, horror is dwarfed by mystery, fantasy, and SF. As a horror writer himself, Kim lays bare these woes in Samakdo. Set in the fictional island of Samakdo, a play on words on the Three Evil Realms in Buddhism, Korean horror is out in full force in Kim's novel. Kim has also contributed to how-to guides for aspiring writers such as Wepsoseol jakgareul wihan jangneu gaideu 7: horeo (웹소설 작가를 위한 장르 가이드 7: 호러 Guide to Genre Writing for Web Novel Writers Vol.7: Horror).
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