Korean writer Jeong You Jeong talks to students of the school

Writer Jeong You Jeong was born in 1966 in South Jeolla Province (South Korea). Since the age of 15, she dreamed of becoming a novelist. However, life did not take the path she wanted. She graduated from the Christian Nursing University, worked as a nurse for 5 years, and worked as a state health insurance inspector and evaluator for 9 years. It was not until she was 41 that she officially began her writing career as a writer.

After several years of anonymous writing, the workSpring Training Camp of My LifeHer 2007 book won the first Segye Daily (World) Youth Literature Award. The work has received love from Korean youth fans. The book has been selected by many local libraries for their recommended reading lists. The author has been invited to speak at many libraries and schools.

Korean writer Jeong You Jeong

In 2009, writer Jeong You Jeong wrote and published the novelShoot me in the heartand continued to receive the Segye Daily Literary Award for the second time. The work depicts the harsh struggle of two young men facing the fate that is suffocating them, constantly escaping to a new life. The work is evaluated as stirring up life awakening with passionate emotion, "a work full of magic that makes readers once again grasp the rope of hope". The book is a bestseller and is very popular with readers.

Writer Jeong You Jeong did not choose the easy path to take. Many places offered her to write short stories, essays, and articles for newspapers, but the writer refused because she wanted to reach readers with long novels.

The novel Seven Years of Darkness by writer Jeong You Jeong was translated into Vietnamese and released in Vietnam.

Her third novel -Seven Years of Darknesspublished in 2011 - has really created a fever of public admiration. The book was voted the book of the year 2011 by the Korean media, and has sold more than 400,000 copies to date. This is the author's most representative work and holds the record for the most books sold. The novel tells the story of the fate of the battle between a father and a son. The book shows enough appeal for readers to easily grasp the story and shows the author's skill in controlling the reader's mood. With this work, writer Jeong You Jeong was mentioned as a focal point in the media and officially stepped into the ranks of star authors. The book is also the author's most favorite work abroad and many publishing companies in other countries bought the translation rights.

The next epic novel by writer Jeong You Jeong is28 published in 2013. Just published in the first week, the book set a best-seller record on online bookstores in Korea, so far selling 200,000 copies. The book tells the story of the fierce rescue and the desire for survival of humans and all living creatures. Compressed into climactic paragraphs, the story shows the image of humans, despite despair and anger, still not giving up hope in the end.

Writer Jeong You Jeong participated in many literary and artistic exchange activities in Vietnam before coming to talk to students of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

All four of Jeong You Jeong’s novels have been sold for film. Currently, the author is focusing on her next work, which will be published in the first half of 2016. Now in the Korean literary world, Jeong You Jeong has become an indispensable name among Korean literary authors who are capable of writing novels that help readers feel the beauty of a true story.

Author Jeong You Jeong confided: "I love Charles Dickens, Raymond Chandler, Stephen King. She learned how to structure a tight story from Stephen King - who wrote bloodless, but suffocatingly tense horror novels; learned from Charles Dickens how to build strong character personalities; learned from Raymond Chandler the technique of detective novels in the Noir style".

To gain knowledge and material for writing novels, Jeong You Jeong loves and often reads books about natural science, evolutionary anthropology, and human psychology. Dynamic, strong, and constantly challenging her own limits - that is the description of the talented writer Jeong You Jeong. Although it took her 14 years to start her writing career, since her debut, Jeong You Jeong has become a novelist admired by the press and society.

Speaking about Jeong You Jeong’s talent and current position, a Korean critic commented: “Author Jeong You Jeong is one of the novelists who is capable of creating works of the greatest magnitude and intensity in Korean literature. The author has a unique talent in building her own solid novel world and leading the characters in the novel as a creator.”