# Pyun Hye-young

Pyun Hye-young (Korean: 편혜영, born 1972) is a South Korean writer.

## Life

Pyun Hye-young was born in Seoul in 1972. She earned her undergraduate degree in creative writing and graduate degree in Korean literature from Hanyang University. After receiving these degrees, Pyun worked as an office worker, and many office workers appear in her stories.

## Work

Pyun began publishing in 2000 and published three collections of stories, Aoi Garden, To the Kennels, and Evening Proposal as well as the novel Ashes and Red. In 2007, To the Kennels won the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, in 2009 the short story "O. Cuniculus" won the Yi Hyoseok Literature Prize and then the Today's Young Writer Award in 2010, while in 2011 Evening Proposal won the Dong-in Literary Award. Her works have several themes including alienation in modern life and an apocalyptic world, and they are often infused with grotesque images. The novel Ashes and Red explores irony and the dual nature of humanity.

## About "O. Cuniculus"

The story follows an unnamed man temporarily assigned to work in the countryside. While visiting an abandoned park, he comes across a rabbit with red eyes and soiled white fur, a symbol of neglect and suffering. The rabbit, appearing weak and desperate, becomes the central figure in the story as the man grapples with his emotions of sympathy and revulsion.
The man’s struggle deepens as he realizes the inability of urban life to offer genuine compassion. The city's rigid and alienating environment leaves no space for nurturing or empathy, and the man contemplates the rabbit’s fate—whether to keep it, release it back into the wild, or abandon it entirely.
This contemplation forms the emotional and thematic core of the story, exploring the tension between human responsibility and society’s indifference. O. Cuniculus captures the essence of urban alienation through the protagonist's disillusionment with city life. Pyun paints a bleak picture of urban spaces, where individuals are trapped in repetitive, dehumanizing routines that dull their sensitivity to suffering—both human and animal, even saying the man had never felt more alone, not even in a crowded room. The protagonist’s internal dialogue and his encounter with the rabbit symbolize a yearning for connection, yet he remains trapped in a cycle of apathy. The city becomes a metaphor for a cold, indifferent world where genuine compassion and connection are increasingly difficult to find.

## Works in English

* "O Cuniculus," in Words Without Borders, translated by Sora Kim-Russell
* "Mallow Gardens" and "Corpses" (This is a PDF file hosted by Acta Koreana)
* "To the Kennels," in AZALEA, Issue 2, 2008, p. 307
* Evening Proposal, translated by Park Youngsuk and Gloria Cosgrove Smith, Dalkey Archive Press, 2016, ISBN 978-1628971545
* —— (2017). The Hole (English hardcover 1st ed.). New York: Arcade Publishing. pp. 1–198. ISBN 9781628727807. Translated by Sora Kim-Russell.
* —— (2018). City of Ash and Red (English hardcover 1st ed.). Arcade Publishing. ISBN 9781628727814. Translated by Sora Kim-Russell.
* —— (2020). The Law of Lines (English hardcover 1st ed.). Arcade Publishing. ISBN 9781948924962. Translated by Sora Kim-Russell.

## Works in Korean (partial)
### Fiction collections

* 《아오이가든》(문학과지성사, 2005)
* 《사육장 쪽으로》(문학동네, 2007)
* 《저녁의 구애》(문학과지성사, 2011)
* 《죽은 자로 하여금》 (현대문학, 2018)

### Long fiction

* 《재와 빨강》(창비, 2010)
* 《서쪽 숲에 갔다》(문학과지성사, 2012)

## Awards

* 2007 40th Hankook Ilbo Literary Award for her collection To the Kennels
* 2007 The 5th Proud Cultural Impression Award
* 2009 The 10th Hyo-Seok Lee Literature Award
* 2010 The 18th Today's Young Artist Award (Literature Division)
* 2012 42nd Dong-in Literary Award
* 2014 48th Yi Sang Literary Award
* 2017 11th Shirley Jackson Award for best novel, for The Hole