Yoon, Elizabeth Haejin

Park Wan-Suh (1931-2011) was one of the most beloved and recognized names in Korean literature; her works were best-sellers, and have been published widely around the world. She was born on the outskirts of Seoul, and enrolled in the prestigious Seoul National University, but her education came to an abrupt end when the Korean War broke out. She married in her early twenties and spent nearly the next two decades raising her five children. In 1970 at age thirty-nine, when not many women would dare dream about a new career, Park debuted as an author when her first novel The Naked Tree.