South Korean author Han Kang made history on Thursday by becoming the first writer from her country to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The prestigious award was revealed in Stockholm by Mats Malm, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy. 

Han was recognised for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Known for her deeply evocative and often harrowing works, Han Kang has emerged as a powerful voice in modern literature. 

Her writing addresses themes of violence, memory, and the human condition, confronting complex historical and personal traumas with stark, lyrical prose. 

Han Kang’s international breakthrough came with her novel ‘The Vegetarian,’ which won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.

The story centres on a woman who decides to stop eating meat in a society that does not understand her decision, reflecting themes of bodily autonomy, mental illness, and resistance to patriarchal norms. 

This work, along with her later novel ‘Human Acts’, which examines the Gwangju Uprising, a brutal military crackdown in South Korea in 1980, has cemented her reputation as a fearless writer.

Born in 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea, Han Kang was shaped by the political turbulence of her youth. 

The Gwangju Massacre, which occurred when she was just a child, left an indelible mark on her understanding of trauma and human suffering. 

Her father, Han Seung-won, is a well-known novelist, which influenced her early exposure to literature and her eventual path as a writer.