On Thursday, author Han Kang became the first South Korean to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for work that explored the relationship between mental and physical anguish as well as historical events.
Han is most known for her first novel, “The Vegetarian,” which was translated into English and received the Man Booker prize in 2016.
She received the Nobel Prize “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life,” according to the Swedish Academy.
Last year, Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse received the honor, and his plays are among the most widely performed of any contemporary author in the world.
The Academy has often been attacked for overrepresenting Western white male authors among its nominees.
The Swedish Academy has undergone significant adjustments since the disastrous #MeToo incident in 2018, promising a more global and gender-equal literature prize.
Since the incident, it has honored four women, including Han — the others are Annie Ernaux of France, US poet Louise Gluck, and Poland’s Olga Tokarczuk — and three men: Austrian novelist Peter Handke, Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, and Fosse.
The Nobel reward includes a diploma, a gold medal, and a $1 million reward money.
Han will receive the honor from King Carl XVI Gustav in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.