Eun Mihee (Korean:은미희; born on September 20, 1960) is a South Korean novelist, writer, columnist, and a college lecturer. She was born in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province in southern South Korea and moved to Gwangju at 3 years old and grew up there. She was a radio actress at Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation in Gwangju in her early 20s and became a journalist at Jeonnam Maeil newspaper later. While working as a journalist, she realized that she really wanted to be a novelist. She started her work as a novelist and she won first prize the Jeonnam Ilbo Literature Award for the short novel What Kind of Silkworm's Dream in Cocoon in 1996. After that, she won the Munhwa Ilbo Literature Award in 1999 for another short novel: Bird Fly Again.
She received the Samsung Literature Award in 2001 for People in Columbarium, which is a novel of poor peoples' lives at an inn in a small town. Her novel Minority's Love received a good review. It depicted the unique and serious introspection about life in the shadow of the past as dealing with the dark side of love and life such as love between relatives and the same sex, which were contradicted, and not allowed socially. When she released the Song of the Wind based on interviews with strolling candy-selling entertainers that can be called as modern strolling-actors, she received sincere attention from the media about her literary skill — revealing the people's characters while describing the joys and sorrows of their lives.
Her first collection of short stories, Ten Thousand and Two Brewing Women, received compliments because she expressed the nobility of life in detail through people lead lonely daily lives. Her other her novels are The First Experience at 18, Wind Man Tree Woman, John Paul II, etc.
Eun was born in a small town as the fourth child and the third daughter of five. Her father was an art teacher at a high school who had three individual exhibitions and several group exhibitions as a member of Hwangto-Group. Mihee had a talent in painting like her father and received awards during elementary and middle school. However, she gave up her dream to be a painter because her father did not want her to be an artist.
She started to develop her writing skill when she was in high school and received an award in a national writing contest. She got admission to Seokang Technology Institute but needed to drop out. Her oldest sister attended a graduate school and her older sister studied at an art college, so her family was not able to support her financially. In May 1980, she experienced serious panic condition when watching the Gwangju Democratization People's Uprising. Many innocent people's deaths and violence done by soldiers made her look at life as vain.
Eun enrolled at Korea National Open University. She got a job at Gwangju Munhwa Broadcasting Co. the following year, but she was not satisfied with it. At the age of 30, she decided to concentrate on writing a novel. Six years later, she received the Jeonnam Ilbo Literature Award for her short novel, What Kind of Silkworm's Dream in Cocoon, in 1996 and the Munhwa Ilbo Literature Award in 1999 for another short novel, Bird Fly Again. She turned into a professional novelist. However, she destroyed her award plaques in 2000 and said,
"Plaque is just a souvenir to acknowledge of the birth of a writer. It might sound like presumptuous, but I badly hate the literature and art convert to the score. The writers should filter the stories that the readers can empathy through infinite imagination and experience. The writers should not stay in some limited fence like the stagnant water could be easily rot. Whenever I see the award plaque, it made me lazy since I recognized me as a 'debut writer.' Therefore, I destroyed all the plaques to have a mind of a beginner before debut."
Her debut as a novelist was later than compared to her peer writers. She recalled that her family had a hard time due to her brother's constant business failures. Nevertheless, she mentioned that watching the Gwangju Uprising, experiencing financially hard times, and not receiving enough education gave her nourishment for life. When she decided to continue her study, she enrolled at Gwangju University in 1999 and got a master's degree from the school in 2010. After that, she started a Ph.D. course at Korean Teacher Department at Dongshin University in 2016. She has pursued her degree and has taught creative writing at Saengoji University and screenwriting at the department of Broadcasting Entertainment at Dongshin University.
Written works
1996, short story What Kind of Silkworm's Dream in Cocoon: 누에는 고치 속에서 무슨 꿈을 꾸는가 Jeonnam Ilbo Literature Award
1999, short story Bird Fly Again: 다시 나는 새 Munwha Ilbo Literature Award
2001, novel People in Columbarium: 비둘기집사람들
2002, novel Minority's Love: 소수의 사랑
2005, novel Song of the Wind: 바람의 노래,
2005, biography Chosun Genius Painter Seungeop Jang: 조선의 천재 화가 장승업
2006, short story book Ten thousand and two brewing Women: 만두 빚는 여자,
2006, collaborated Audio book: Snack
2006, novel The First Experience at 18: 18세, 첫경험,
2006, short story I lost myself: 나를 잃다 (Munjang Webzine January 2007)
2007, novel Wind male tree woman: 바람남자 나무여자,
2007, biography Goddess of Creation and Destruction — Camille Claudel: 창조와 파괴의 여신 카미유 클로델
2008, short story A Landscape with a Blue Mold: 푸른 곰팡이가 있는 풍경 (Writer open tomorrow 52, winter)
2008, collaborated 2 and 1/2: 2와 2분의 1
2008, picture book Shimchung Fell in Indangsu: 인당수에 빠진 심청
2009, novel Butterfly, Butterfly: 나비야 나비야
2010, picture book Introducing my Friend Butterfly: 내 친구 나비를 소개합니다
