Lee Geum-Yi
Since her early childhood in South Korea, Lee Geum-Yi Lee was fascinated with stories told by her grandmother and devoured any story she could get her hands on, ranging from popular radio soap operas to the masterpieces of world literature.
Her writing debut came with the short story Younggu and Heukgu (1984). In the following decades, Lee Geum-Yi has captivated readers and critics alike with more than 50 titles that have defined Children’s and YA literature in South Korea.
You Too Are a Twilight Lily (1999) is considered to have elevated the status of Children’s Literature in South Korea. While Yujin And Yujin (2004) began the rise of Young Adult Literature in South Korea, initiating as it did a national debate about childhood trauma and the challenges faced by teenagers.
With her latest novel The Gap of Sorrow (2025), Geum-yi has completed a trilogy on the Korean female diaspora during the Japanese occupation. The three works in the series are: Can’t I Go Instead? (2016), which tells the story of two girls whose fates diverge under colonial rule, The Picture Bride (2020), about the first generation of Korean “picture brides” in Hawaii and The Gap of Sorrow (2025), which explores the lives of Koreans displaced to Sakhalin.
The power of Lee Geum-Yi’s stories has seen her works loved by children and adults alike.
