Gu Byeong-mo


Gu Byeong-mo is a South Korean writer. She made her literary debut in 2009 when her novel Wizard Bakery won the 2nd Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction. Her 2015 short story collection Geugeosi namaneun anigireul received the Today's Writer Award and Hwang Sun-won New Writers' Award. She penned the novels Pigeumalion aideul, Agami, and Bangjuro oseyo as well as the short story collection Goineun aniyeotjiman. Gu's debut novel Wijeodeu Beikeori was translated into Spanish by Minjeong Jeong and Irma Zyanja Gil Yáñez. They received the 24th Daesan Literary Award in 2016 for their translation.

Life

Gu Byeong-mo was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1976. She read extensively from a young age, reportedly borrowing books from a well-off friend's library as a middle school student and reading cheap pocketbooks her older sister sometimes brought home. She said in an interview that she read Demian by Hermann Hesse until the cover wore off. She decided to become a writer at the age of 12 and submitted a story to a newspaper-run writer's contest in her last year of high school.
Gu studied Korean literature at Kyung Hee University. Upon graduation, she joined a publisher as an editor. She made her literary debut in 2009, and has since focused on writing. When she is not writing, she likes to spend time with her child. She moved to Jinju, South Korea in early 2015. She reads or writes during train rides between Jinju and Seoul when she has to visit the latter to promote her new releases.

Writing

Many of Gu Byeong-mo's works are genre fiction. Her debut novel Wijeodeu beikeori mixes mystery, horror, and fantasy. It is the first young adult novel in South Korea to employ magic as a major plot device, breaking the convention of the genre to deal with only realistic settings. The judges of the Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction chose Wijeodeu as the winner because it is a fantastical allegory that deviates from the standard coming-of-age story set in schools.
Gu's later works are also allegories that use unusual motifs to reveal a dark side of reality. “Hwagapsonyeojeon” is a short story based on “The Little Match Girl” by Hans Christian Andersen. But instead of seeing wonderful visions in the glow of her matches, the protagonist only sees scenes of horror and tragedy. The story urges readers to question commonly accepted truths or lessons and to view the world in a new light.

Works