Jungeun Hwang

Hwang Jungeun is a South Korean novelist and short story writer whose fiction is celebrated for its lyrical prose, subtle use of fantasy, and compassionate portrayals of people living on the margins of society. Born in Seoul, she studied French literature at Incheon National University but left due to health issues before completing her degree. She later studied creative writing independently and made her literary debut in 2005 when her short story "Mother" won the Kyunghyang Shinmun New Writer's Award.

Hwang gained widespread recognition with her first novel, One Hundred Shadows, an imaginative blend of social realism and fantasy that explores the lives of workers facing displacement in a Seoul electronics market. She followed it with acclaimed novels including I'll Go On and Savage Alice, as well as several award-winning short story collections. Her work is known for combining dreamlike and fantastical elements with sharp observations of poverty, inequality, grief, and the quiet resilience of ordinary people.

One of the leading voices in contemporary Korean literature, Hwang has received numerous major literary awards, including the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, the Shin Dong-yep Literature Award, and the Daesan Literary Award. Through her fiction, she consistently gives voice to people overlooked by society, balancing tenderness, moral inquiry, and understated humor in stories that have earned both critical acclaim and an international readership.