キム/チョヨプ
金草葉。1993年生まれ。浦項工科大学化学科を卒業し、同大大学院で生化学修士号を取得。在学中の2017年、第2回韓国科学文学賞中短編部門にて「館内紛失」で大賞、「わたしたちが光の速さで進めないなら」で佳作を受賞し、作家としての活動をスタートした
Source : https://www.amazon.co.jp
김초엽(1993~)은 한국의 소설가다. 2017년 <관내분실>과 <우리가 빛의 속도로 갈 수 없다면>을 기고하여 제2회 한국과학문학상 중단편 대상과 가작을 수상했으며, 이후 본격적인 문단 활동을 시작했다. 주로 세계의 종말, 디스토피아와 같은 SF장르의 작품을 발표하며 폭넓은 독자층을 확보했다.
Kim Choyeop (born 1993) is a South Korean writer.
Life
Kim Choyeop was born in Ulsan. She holds a BA in chemistry and an MA in biochemistry from Pohang University of Science and Technology. Kim launched her literary career in 2017 when two of her stories, “Gwannebunsil” (관내분실 Irretrievable) and "Uriga bichuisokdoro gal su eopdamyeon" (우리가 빛의 속도로 갈 수 없다면 If We Can’t Go at the Speed of Light) won the grand and runner-up prizes respectively at the 2017 Korean SF Awards. She then went on to win the Today’s Writer Award in 2019. Her debut short story collection, Uriga bichuisokdoro gal su eopdamyeon, was a record-breaking bestseller in South Korea and has been released in Japanese and Chinese. One of the stories from the book, "Gongsaeng gaseol" (공생 가설 Symbiosis Theory), has also been published in Clarkesworld.
Writing
Kim Choyeop is a realist science fiction writer in that she deals with the everyday issues of discrimination and alienation toward females, people with disabilities, migrants, and people of color. The worlds she creates do not exist in a universe transcendent of human reality, but rather in a universe that is an extension of the common lives in which humans have laid roots. In Kim’s novels, truth is not a given but the process of discovery itself; her novels also often use narratives in which the search for a missing person leads to a realization of truth. Her works have been praised for rewriting scientific facts through literary metaphors and masterfully depicting the deficiencies of existence and the related materiality of emotion.
The stories in Kim's debut collection, Uriga bichuisokdoro gal su eopdamyeon, all feature characters who have made a certain choice. The titular work, for example, revolves around Anna who has chosen to wait indefinitely at a rundown space station. "Sullyejadeureun wae doraoji anneunga" (순례자들은 왜 돌아오지 않는가 Why the Pilgrims Don’t Return) tells the story of people who have decided not to return to their home. "Naui uju yeongunge gwanhayeo" (나의 우주 영웅에 관하여 On My Space Heroes) focuses on the promising space pilot Choi Jae-kyeong's mysterious choice. Despite the fact that in these works, the realm of science extends infinitely to the universe and the afterlife, the experiences of the characters are realistic and relevant to modern times.
Kim has said she created her debut story, "Irretrievable" by combining two ideas: a memo saying "Books lost in the library are hard to find" and the idea of "mind uploading," in which people’s minds are saved digitally. While searching at the library for the mind file that contains her lost mother’s soul, Jimin learns that her mother stopped working after her pregnancy and suffered from postpartum depression. This discovery about her mother is made all the more poignant by the fact Jimin is herself eight weeks pregnant. It also leads to the character’s understanding of the general plight of women who are cut off from the world because of marriage and childbirth. When Jimin finally finds the soul of her mother Eun-ha, she tells her mother that she understands, and Jimin’s mother extends her hand to Jimin.
