Park Wan-suh, South Korean novelist died she was , 79

Park Wan-suh  was a South Korean writer died she was , 79.

(October 20, 1931 – January 22, 2011)[1]

Early years

Park Wan-suh (also Park Wan-seo, Park Wan-so, Park Wansuh, Park Kee-pah and Pak Wan-so, Pak Wanso) was born in 1931 in Gaepung-gun, Gyeonggi-do in what is now North Korea.^[2] Park entered Seoul National University, the most prestigious in Korea, but dropped out almost immediately after attending classes due to the outbreak of the Korean War and the death of her brother.^[3] During the war, Park was separated from her mother and elder brother by the North Korea army, which moved them to North Korea.^[4] She lived in the village of Achui, in Guri, outside Seoul until her death.^[5]

Work

Park published her first work, The Naked Tree, in 1970, when she was 40. Her oeuvre quickly grew however and as of 2007 she had written fifteen novels, and 10 short story collections.^[6] Her work is “revered” in Korea^[7] and she has won many Korean literary awards including, in 1981 the Isang Literary Prize and in 1990 the Korean Literature award.^[8] Park’s work centers on families and biting critiques of the middle class.^[9] Perhaps the most vivid example of this is in her work The Dreaming Incubator in which a woman is forced to undergo a series of abortions until she can deliver a male child. Her best known works in Korea include 'Bad Luck in the City', 'Swaying Afternoons', 'That Year the Winter was Warm', 'Are you Still Dreaming?'.^[10]
Park’s translated novels include “Who Ate up All the Shinga” which sold some 1.5 million copies in Korean ^[11] and was well-reviewed in English translation. Park is also published in “The Red Room: Stories of Trauma in Contemporary Korea “
Park died on the morning of January 22, 2011, suffering from cancer.^[12]

Partial list of publications

My Very Last Possession: And Other Stories
The Red Room: Stories of Trauma in Contemporary Korea
Sketch of the Fading Sun
Three Days in That Autumn
Weathered Blossom (Modern Korean Short Stories)
Who Ate Up All the Shinga?: An Autobiographical Novel

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