Han Kang takes home NBCC fiction award for 'We Do Not Part'
Published: 27 Mar. 2026, 09:18
Updated: 27 Mar. 2026, 19:35
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- WOO JI-WON
- [email protected]
![Author Han Kang delivers her acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature at the Nobel Banquet held at Stockholm City Hall in Stockholm, Sweden, on Dec. 10, 2024. [NEWS1]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/03/27/38e02bfb-65aa-42aa-a5c7-40030fce29c3.jpg)
Author Han Kang delivers her acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature at the Nobel Banquet held at Stockholm City Hall in Stockholm, Sweden, on Dec. 10, 2024. [NEWS1]
Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang's novel “We Do Not Part” (2021) won the fiction prize at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards at The New School Auditorium in New York on Thursday.
Han is the second Korean writer to receive any NBCC award, following poet Kim Hye-soon, who was honored in the poetry category for the English translation of her collection “Phantom Pain Wings” (2019) in 2024.
“Thank you. I am so honored,” said David Ebershoff, the vice president and editor-in-chief of Hogarth, a literary imprint of Penguin Random House, who read a message from Han while accepting the award on her behalf. “Thank you to the two translators of 'We Do Not Part,' E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris. I appreciate the incredible connection you have created for this book — from my mother tongue, Korean, to English.” Ebershoff then read out Han's thanks to other contributors to the novel.
![David Ebershoff, vice president of Hogarth, reads a message from Han Kang at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards at The New School Auditorium in New York, after her novel "We Do Not Part" won the fiction prize. [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/03/27/d56fe761-ccc4-4c27-86a5-287ed9361ed9.jpg)
David Ebershoff, vice president of Hogarth, reads a message from Han Kang at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards at The New School Auditorium in New York, after her novel "We Do Not Part" won the fiction prize. [SCREEN CAPTURE]
“In this book, there are [characters] who have resolved not to bid farewell,” Han's message continued. “Instead of that impossible farewell, they choose to stay within a tenacious morning. They light candles below the sea in the pitch-black plunge of the night. I still hope to believe in the blinking light which we have in us and move forward. [...] Thank you so much for the incredible support. I deeply appreciate it. Thank you.”
Founded in 1974, the NBCC is a nonprofit organization of book critics in New York that annually honors the best books written in English across six categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
During the awards, the poetry prize went to “Night Watch: Poems” (2025) by Kevin Young; nonfiction to “Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI” (2025) by Karen Hao; biography to “A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America’s Disabled” (2025) by Alex Green; autobiography to “Mother Mary Comes to Me” (2025) by Arundhati Roy; and criticism to “Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right” (2025) by Quinn Slobodian.
Han, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024, was short-listed as one of five finalists in the fiction category in January.
First published in Korean in 2021, “We Do Not Part” is a story told by three women about love, life, grief and loss surrounding the 1948 Jeju April 3 Uprising. The English edition was translated last year.
![The cover of the English edition of Han Kang's novel ″We Do Not Part″ [PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/03/27/e3d488d1-fdd7-4825-87ca-6582c4d3bd2f.jpg)
The cover of the English edition of Han Kang's novel ″We Do Not Part″ [PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE]
In 2023, the novel won the prestigious Prix Medicis award, which was founded in 1958 and is one of France's four most prestigious literary awards.
Meanwhile, Hedgie Choi's debut poetry collection “Salvage” (2025) did not win the John Leonard Prize. Named after longtime critic and NBCC co-founder John Leonard, the prize, established in 2013, honors the best debut book in any genre.
BY WOO JI-WON [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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