Recipient of the 2025 Arts Council Korea Literature Fellowship
Choi Jae-hoon (b.1973) made his literary debut when he won the new writer’s award from Literature and Society in 2007. His works include Baron Quirval’s Castle, Seven Cat Eyes, and From the Sleep of Babes.
1. Life
Choi Jae-hoon was born in Seoul and graduated from Yonsei University's Department of Business Administration and Seoul Institute of the Arts' Department of Creative Writing. He made his debut in 2007 with the short story “The Castle of Baron Curval,” which won the Literature and Society New Literature Award.
2. Writing
Rather than following the Korean literary tradition, he draws inspiration primarily from Western literature. His short story collection The Castle of Baron Curval (퀴르발 남작의 성) is replete with film and pop culture references like crime fiction by Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie as well as subculture elements like the vampire, Frankenstein’s monster, and cannibalism. Citing The Catcher in the Rye as his favorite book, Choi said in an interview that it is what piqued his interest in the novel and he has read all existing translations of the work into Korean.
Reference
Chains of an Angel 천사의 사슬 (Munhakdongne Publishing Corp., 문학동네, 2018)
Dangerous Metaphors 위험한 비유 (Moonji Publishing co., Ltd. 문학과지성사, 2019)
Profile information provided by the Arts Council Korea (ARKO)
LTI Korea 
DLKL 
SIWF 
