Lee Geum-yi

Lee Geum-yi is an author of children's and young adult literature who is recognized to have pioneered and further expanded the genre of children's and young adult fiction in Korea. Since her debut in 1984, she has authored more than fifty literary works. In the early days of her career, she mainly wrote children's stories set in rural areas including Keundori in Bamtee Village, leading her to earn the nickname “the writer of agricultural villages.” Lee has aimed to address the dark underbelly of the developing Korean society and issues involving minorities including women and the handicapped. Since the release of her first young adult novel Yujin and Yujin in 2004, Lee has been making deep observations into the lives of teenagers and incorporating the varied social and psychological issues they face into her work. Moreover, through historical novels Can’t I Go Instead? and The Picture Bride, she has provided in-depth insight into modern and contemporary Korean history and expanded the limits and beyond of young adult fiction. In 2018, she was selected for the IBBY Honour List for Can’t I Go Instead? She was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, regarded as the Nobel Prize for children's literature, in both 2020 and 2024.