Born in South Korea in 1968, Park Min-gyu debuted in 2003. As his writing style was so new, it sent shockwaves through the Korean literary world.
Unusual metaphors and descriptions, sentences and paragraphs that ignored the rules of grammar, narrative structures that broke down logical causality, and characters that behaved in exaggerated ways like cartoon characters—there was no aspect of his writing that wasn’t unconventional. Though his unusual fiction style earns him his self-designated title of “ruleless hybrid writer,” Park’s writing is entertaining and accessible rather than difficult to understand. His novels include: Legend of Earth’s Heroes (2003), The Sammi Superstars’ Last Fan Club (2003), Ping Pong (2006), Pavane for a Dead Princess (2009). His short fictions are: Castella (2005) and Double (2010). He has won many literary awards including Munhakdonge New Writer’s Award (2003), the Hankyoreh Literary Award (2003), the Yi Hyo-seok Literary Award (2007), the Hwang Sun-won Literary Award (2009) and the Yi Sang Literary Award (2010).