South Korean author Han Kang has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday.
The announcement made Han the first South Korean writer to win this prestigious honor. The academy praised her “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
Anders Olsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Literature, commended Han’s “physical empathy for the vulnerable, often female lives” of her characters.
“She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in a poetic and experimental style, has become an innovator in contemporary prose,” Olsson said.
Her novel The Vegetarian, which won the 2016 International Booker Prize, remains her most internationally recognized work. She has also written several other acclaimed works such as Human Acts, The White Book, and Greek Lessons.
