Gu Byeong-mo

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.

Gu Byeong-mo (Hangul 구병모; born 1976) is a South Korean writer. She made her literary debut in 2009 when her novel Wizard Bakery (위저드 베이커리 Wizard Bakery) won the 2nd Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction. Her 2015 short story collection Geugeosi namaneun anigireul (그것이 나만은 아니기를 I Hope It's Not Just Me) received the Today's Writer Award and Hwang Sun-won New Writers' Award. She penned the novels Pigeumalion aideul (피그말리온 아이들 The Pygmalion Children), Agami (아가미 Gills), and Bangjuro oseyo (방주로 오세요 Come to Bangju) as well as the short story collection Goineun aniyeotjiman (고의는 아니지만 I Didn't Mean to But). 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.

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.