(English) Chun Young-mi earned a doctorate in literature at Sungshin Women’s University and worked as an instructor at universities and high schools for seven years. She’s now a liberal arts instructor in Sydney, Australia and also teaches Korean history and culture there.

She made her literary debut upon receiving the grand prize at the Korea Content Award with her first full-length novel A Gardener with a Hunched Back. In this work, Chun describes the warm solidarity of social minorities, including a gardener with a hunched back, a woman from a ruined upper-class family, and an eccentric doctor. She emphasized the values of vitality that these people carry, as depicted through her unique warm, immersive style.

The author goes beyond the grim tone and manner typically found in historical novels to create ordinary, happy characters, which has established her reputation as a storyteller who pursues warm, humanist historical novels.

Her latest novel The Wild Bibari of Joseon is inspired by Kim Man-Deok, the great female merchant of Jeju Island during the Joseon Dynasty, from whom the author has likened to the positive, strong energy of Anne from Anne of Green Gables. Chun features Kim Man-Deok in the wild bibari to dynamically illustrate her brilliant life.