Choe Inseok

He has written multiple novels. Gangcheolmujigae (강철무지개 Iron Rainbow), a novel published in 2015, is a science fiction story about Korea after 2100. In Gangcheolmujigae (강철무지개 Iron Rainbow), the value of labor in Korea has fallen, and nuclear waste has been spilled over the Yellow Sea, turning it into a sea of death. Society is controlled by a totalitarian regime, and other than the fact that there has been reunification, it is a place of darkness. Upon such imagination of science fiction, Choe Inseok throw a question of realism regarding reality.

His start as a fiction writer began in 1986, when his novel Gugyeongkkun (구경꾼 The Onlooker) won the Novelists’ Award. He was writing fiction novels and play writing, also occasionally translating, he eventually came to focus on writing fiction, which became his main profession. Particularly, in Nae yeonghonui oomul (내 영혼의 우물 The Well of My Soul), the fantasy world that was in the novel was praised by the literary community as searching for a new method of depicting a changed reality, also influence many writers later. With his collection Nae yeonghonui oomul (내 영혼의 우물 The Well of My Soul) he won the 3rd Daesan Literary Award in 1995. He won the 8th Park Young-joon Literary Prize in 1997 with his novella Norae-e gwanhayeo (노래에 관하여 About Singing), and he won the 8th Hahn Moo-Sook Literary Prize in 2003 with his collection Gureongideului jib (구렁이들의 집 The House of Serpents).

His first writings were play scripts. In 1977, he submitted a play to a new writer's contest, and that led to him participating in a ‘Playwriting Workshop’ taught by Yeo Seok-ki, a professor of English literature at Korea University at the time. He wrote a play “Byeokgwa chang” (벽과 창 The Wall and the Window) in this workshop, and that play won the Monthly Korean Literature New Writer's Award in 1980, launching his literary career. Afterwards, he put up various plays on the stage, actively pursuing his career as a playwright. With “Eotteon saramdo sarajiji anneunda” (어떤 사람도 사라지지 않는다 No One Disappears), he won the Baeksang Arts Awards New Writer's Award in 1983, and the Yeonghui Play Award in 1985. In the same year he won the Korean Literature Prize New Writer's Award with “Geu Chanlanhadeon yeoreumeul wihayeo” (그 찬란하던 여름을 위하여 For That Shining Summer). In 1988 he won the Grand Bell Award in Dramatization for “Chilsu and Mansu” (칠수와 만수), showing his talent in various areas.

Choe Inseok (Korean: 최인석, born 1953) is a [South Korean] writer, playwright and screenwriter who is a significant figure in Korean Realism. He began writing fiction because he felt limited by censorship. Choe Inseok says the following. “At the time, there was censorship. If you finished writing a script, you had to submit it to the Performing Arts Committee before putting on the show. Then the committee would read the script. They’d cross out certain sections with red lines, demanding an edit, and in the worst case the show couldn’t happen. You could only put up a show once you passed through censorship. Fiction or poetry would get censored afterwards, but performances would get censored beforehand. Due to such conditions of the time, it was difficult to write a script and put up a play. So I began writing fiction.”

Choe Inseok was born on September 17, 1953, in Namwon Jeollabuk-do, as a second son among 2 sons and 4 daughters. His father was a reporter at a regional newspaper, and was also an editorialist. Later, he spent his life as a student in Jeonju and Seoul. His literary dreams began during his high school years. He went to university in 1972.