片惠英

Pyun Hye-young (Korean: 편혜영, born 1972) is a South Korean writer. She won the 2017 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel for her novel The Hole.

Background and education

Pyun Hye-young was born in Seoul in 1972. She earned her undergraduate degree in creative writing and graduate degree in Korean literature from Hanyang University. After receiving these degrees, Pyun worked as an office worker. Many of her stories feature office workers.

Publishing Career

Pyun began publishing in 2000. She has published three collections of stories, Aoi Garden, To the Kennels: And Other Stories, and Evening Proposal, as well as four novels, The Owl Cries: A Novel, City of Ash and Red, The Hole, and The Law of Lines.

In 2007, her collection To the Kennels won the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award. Her short story "O. Cuniculus" won the Yi Hyoseok Literature Prize in 2009 and then the Today's Young Writer Award in 2010. In 2011, Evening Proposal won the Dong-in Literary Award. Her works have several themes including alienation in modern life and an apocalyptic world, and they are often infused with grotesque images.

The novel City of Ash and Red explores irony and the dual nature of humanity. It was named a "Best Book of 2018" by NPR.

Works in English

Stories

"O Cuniculus," in Words Without Borders, translated by Sora Kim-Russell

"Mallow Gardens" and "Corpses" (This is a PDF file hosted by Acta Koreana)

"To the Kennels," in AZALEA, Issue 2, 2008, p. 307

Collections

Evening Proposal, translated by Park Youngsuk and Gloria Cosgrove Smith, Dalkey Archive Press, 2016, ISBN 9781628971545

To the Kennels: And Other Stories, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Heinz Insu Fenkl, Arcade Publishing, 2024, ISBN 9781956763669

Novels

The Hole. Translated by Sora Kim-Russell (English hardcover 1st ed.). Arcade Publishing. 2017. ISBN 9781628727807.

City of Ash and Red. Translated by Sora Kim-Russell (English hardcover 1st ed.). Arcade Publishing. 2018. ISBN 9781628727814.

The Law of Lines. Translated by Sora Kim-Russell (English hardcover 1st ed.). Arcade Publishing. 2020. ISBN 9781948924962.

The Owl Cries: A Novel. Translated by Sora Kim-Russell. Arcade Publishing. 2023. ISBN 9781956763508.

Works in Korean (partial)

Fiction collections

《아오이가든》(문학과지성사, 2005)

《사육장 쪽으로》(문학동네, 2007)

《저녁의 구애》(문학과지성사, 2011)

《죽은 자로 하여금》 (현대문학, 2018)

Long fiction

《재와 빨강》(창비, 2010)

《서쪽 숲에 갔다》(문학과지성사, 2012)

Awards

2007 40th Hankook Ilbo Literary Award for her collection To the Kennels

2007 The 5th Proud Cultural Impression Award

2009 The 10th Hyo-Seok Lee Literature Award

2010 The 18th Today's Young Artist Award (Literature Division)

2012 42nd Dong-in Literary Award

2014 48th Yi Sang Literary Award

2017 11th Shirley Jackson Award for best novel, for The Hole