International Writing Program participant wins 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature

South Korean author Han Kang was in residence at Iowa in 1998

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to South Korean author Han Kang, a 1998 participant in the University of Iowa International Writing Program (IWP).

The Nobel Foundation honored Han "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life." The Nobel prizes, which are announced every October and presented in a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10, reward outstanding efforts in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.

"In her oeuvre," the foundation states, "Han Kang confronts historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and, in each of her works, exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose."

Han Kang

Han began writing poetry in 1993 and graduated the same year from Yonsei University, where she studied Korean language and literature. In 1994, her poems won a prize in the annual literary contest held by Seoul-Shinmun, the national newspaper. Since then, she has focused more on fiction. Her IWP residency in 1998 was funded by the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation.

Perhaps Han's best-known work is the 2007 novel The Vegetarian, which won the International Booker Prize in 2016 and was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Publisher's Weekly, and Time. The book, which has been described as dark and Kafka-esque, was adapted into a film that was selected for inclusion in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Han's other novels include The Black Deer (1998), Greek Lessons (2011), Human Acts (2014), The White Book (2016), and We Do Not Part (2021). We Do Not Part will be published in English in 2025. Additional works include the short story collection Love of Yeosu (1995), the poetry collection I Put the Evening in the Drawer (2013), and the essay collection Quietly Sung Songs (2007).

Christopher Merrill, director of the International Writing Program, says he was pleased to learn earlier in the week that oddsmakers had considered several IWP alumni to be in the running for the Nobel.

"I'm thrilled that Han Kang is the first Korean writer to win the most prestigious literary prize of all," he says. "The IWP had the good luck to host her in 1998, when she was a promising young writer, and I suspect her sense of literary possibilities expanded during her time in our UNESCO City of Literature, as it has for so many writers from around the world."

Han is the third IWP resident to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2006, Istanbul-born novelist Orhan Pamuk, who was in residence during the fall of 1985, received the honor, and the 2012 award went to Chinese novelist Mo Yan, a 2004 resident.

The IWP is a unique conduit for the world's literatures, connecting well-established writers from around the globe, bringing international literature into classrooms, introducing American writers to other cultures through reading tours, and serving as a clearinghouse for literary news and a wealth of archival and pedagogical materials. Since 1967, more than 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries have been in residence at Iowa.

More information about the prize, which is worth about $1.05 million, is available on the Nobel website.