Song Giwon

Starting in the 1990s, Song was able to return solely to creative writing. Following his travels to India and Myanmar in 1997, he became enraptured with Buddhism and turned to writing about Buddhist themes and self- observation. He has also been an active poet.

Song Giwon volunteered for service in the Vietnam War in 1970, but was struck by malaria and was sent home after his hospital stay. Song characterizes his Vietnam experience as a self-destructive time in his life when he put himself at death's doorway. After surviving his brush with death, he began writing poems and novels in 1974. At the early stage of his writing career, he began focusing his attention on Korea's oppressive political situation. His self-destructive instinct re-emerged at this time as “resistance.” During the late 1970s, he employed his writing talents as a leading figure in the “Declaration of the National Political Situation.” Then, in 1980, he was imprisoned for some time for his involvement in the Gim Daejung (then an opposition party leader) Incident. Afterwards, he helped plan and publish several progressive journals (Silcheon munhak, Minjung Gyoyuk, Nodong munhak, etc.) and acted as a leader in the democratization and people's movements, for which he was arrested and imprisoned several times. This temporarily halted his writing

Song Giwon was born on July 1, 1947 in the Choseong Township of Boseong County, Jeollanam-do, in South Korea. In 1966, while a student at Joseon High School, his poem “Field of Flowers” (Kkotbat) was chosen for a prize in a nationwide writing contest for high school students sponsored by Korea University. Later his poem “Song of the Wind” (Baramui norae) was chosen in a similar contest put on by the Sorabol College of Arts, and in 1967 his poem “On a Sleepless Night” (Bulmyeonui bame) won a prize in the spring literary contest held by the Chonnam Daily newspaper. In 1968, due to the outcome of the contest, he entered Sorabol College of Arts.