South Korean author Han Kang wins Nobel Prize in literature

Han Kang has been named the 2024 Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature, the first Asian woman and the first writer from South Korea to receive the award.

Han was selected “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life,” the Swedish Academy said in its announcement on Thursday.

Writer and committee member Ann-Karin Palm noted Han’s “really intense lyrical prose that is both tender and brutal and sometimes surreal,” and praised the author’s ability to span genres and traverse varied stylistic expressions.