Kim Yi-sak is a South Korean novelist and translator.
1. Life
A fan of Hong Kong cinema, Chinese dramas, and Taiwanese singers, she gained admission to Sogang University for special proficiency in Chinese. She double majored in Chinese culture and journalism as an undergraduate, after which she studied Chinese drama for her graduate degree. She is married to a North Korean defector with whom she is raising a daughter. Kim has published a collection of essays based on their love story leading up to their marriage, Bukan ijumingwa hamkke samnida (북한 이주민과 함께 삽니다 I Live With a North Korean Defector).
2. Writing
Kim's work reinterprets traditional Korean lore, giving it a modern twist with updated characters and subject matter. Her short story "Nanginjeon" (낭인전 The Vagabond) riffs off Byeon Gang-soe, one of the twelve song cycles of pansori that offers a humorous take on the often dolorous lives of the common people. In Kim's version, werewolves are incorporated into an SF reimagining of the traditional pansori. While Kim's interest in restoring voices erased from history means that she often leans toward female-led narratives, her fascination with the uncanny and paranormal also lends itself to such fantastical characters as werewolves and jiangshi.
Kim made her literary debut winning the first edition of Golden Bough’s Urban Fantasy Contest for her short story, "Raosanghaiui siginjadeul" (라오상하이의 식인자들 The Cannibals of Old Shanghai). Set in bustling Shanghai of 1934, the protagonist of "Raosanghaiui siginjadeul" is a jiangshi who preys on the qi of Western men while masquerading as an urbane "modern boy." The resulting story is a flight of fantasy featuring a jiangshi serial killer against the backdrop of 1930s Shanghai. In general, Kim's narratives are often driven by female protagonists. Kim's novel Hanseongbu, dal balgeun bame (한성부, 달 밝은 밤 Hanseongbu on a Moonlit Night) (2021) features a Joseon-era female protagonist who works as a coroner, whose independent attitude and expertise carries the episodic narrative to the end. Horror stories featuring women protagonists or ghosts are also a favorite of Kim's. "Aegwi" (애귀The Sorrowful Ghost), for example, employs a 2nd person narrative in which a ghost tells the story of female North Korean defector living and raising a daughter in the South.
LTI Korea 
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