Kim Hoon

In 2011 Kim's work “Schwertgesang” (translated by Heidi Kang and Ahn So-hyun) won the Daesan Award for Translated Literature.

In 2009 a musical also titled, Namhansanseong was based on the novel, but focuses on the lives of common people and their spirit of survival during harsh situations. It stars Yesung of boy band Super Junior as villain "Jung Myung-soo", a servant-turned-interpreter. It was shown from 14 to 31 October at Seongnam Arts Center Opera House.

Kim was born on May 5, 1948, in Seoul, Korea. After graduating from Whimoon High School, Kim Hoon entered Korea University in 1966. He joined Hankook Ilbo as a journalist in 1973. He made his debut as a novelist at the age of forty-seven with the publication of Memories of Earthenware with Comb Teeth Pattern. His second novel. Song of the Sword (칼의 노래), which was awarded the prestigious Dong-in Literature Prize, was a literary sensation and elevated him into one of the most recognized names in Korean literature. Two years later in 2003, Kim's reputation as a writer of exceptional talent was affirmed when his first published short-story “Cremation” was chosen as the winner of Lee Sang Literature Prize. Kim worked as a journalist for 20 years before becoming a writer and is well known for refusing to use anything but a pencil when he writes. He is also an avid bicyclist who does not have a driver's license and has written a series of essays on his bicycle travels across the south of the Korean peninsula.

Namhansanseong (남한산성) is his latest work, and has sold almost 1 million copies in South Korea. It is based on the incident of Byeongjahoran, in which during the Second Manchu invasion of Korea in 1636, when King Injo of Joseon Dynasty took refuge in the Namhan Mountain Fortress in Gyeonggi-do, in an ill-fated attempt to defy the rule of the Manchu Qing Empire Hong Taiji, following the First Manchu invasion of Korea in 1627. It was adapted into a film, entitled The Fortress, in 2017.