One day when she was a hundred-day-old baby  

 
In 1980, the coal briquettes were mostly used for heating houses in Korea. At that time, the biggest enemy was the invasion of coal briquette gas. For this reason, people believed in a folk remedy of drinking the juice of radish water Kimchi for gas poisoning from coal briquettes. Writer Nah Young was born in 1980. One day when the writer was a hundred-day-old baby, the horrifying coal briquette gas which was carbon monoxide was spreading in the small room where her three family members were sleeping. The family awoke from sleep by the baby’s crying sound. As soon as sensing the smell of briquette gas, her dad immediately picked up the fainted mom and Nah Young and then ran outside. The baby’s crying sound saved the whole family. Since then, however, the baby showed the slow development, which was led to brain lesions with quadriplegia in which her left-side body was not controllable. 
 
 
 
Opening the door to writer  
 
Nah Young always set her parents at ease with her bright smile, and never complained about any difficulties during school life. She really enjoyed exploring the world while reading books. When she was a middle school student, she grew her dream of becoming a writer as she thought ‘it would be the only thing she could do all by herself’. For this reason, she chose the Dept. of Creative Writing in university. Even though she wanted to write a novel in the beginning, it was not that easy in reality. Experience was important for writing a novel, and it was even tough for her to tap the computer keyboard with one hand. 
When she was a sophomore, her academic advisor who was also a famous novelist encouraged her by saying ‘She is talented in writing good fairy tales’. After that, she changed her dream to an author of children’s books. 

 
In 2008, she submitted her short story for children [I am Deulba!] to『The World of Children’s Literature』, and then received the Rookie of the Year Award. Thanks to many surrounding people’s encouragement, she was able to give a challenge again. In the results of challenging the annual spring literary contest again, she was selected as the winner of children’s story in the Seoul Shinmun Annual Spring Literary Contest of 2010. The reporter who visited her in her house located in Gyeonggi-do covered with heavy snow, was surprised twice to hear that the disable person was the winner of the annual spring literary contest, and also see her bright smile on her face. At that time, it was not common to see literary activities by disabled writers, so Nah Young’s prize-winning grabbed a lot of attention. 
 
 
 
The world of fairy tales by Nah Young  

 
The first full-length story for children [Sunshine Prince] was published in 2015, which is beloved by many children enough to be selected as a subject-related book for elementary school textbook. 
“I started writing [Sunshine Prince] because I was a lot interested in King Danjong who lived a tragic life as a young king of the Joseon Dynasty. In the process of studying about him, I learnt that his name was ‘Lee Hong-Wi’ using ‘Hong’ meaning ‘wide’ and ‘Wi’ meaning ‘sunshine’. For some reason, the name seemed to show the life of this young king better. And I challenged to write a full-length narrative based on his life. The biggest goal was to newly deliver the story that happened in reality.”
 
In 2018, the second full-length story for children [The World of Blue Eyes] is a work about what she felt in her trip to the United States. 
She is continuously performing creative activities by publishing [Smile When Shooting Stars Fall Down] in 2021, and [Talitha Koum] in 2023.
 “I always want to challenge new things and also to expand the world of works. Even though the range of my movement is narrow, I want to become a write with the wide range of works. I want to create works with no limitation on materials. I am working hard to be able to create newer stories in the future. 
I am always grateful for being able to achieve my long-cherished dream as a writer. After achieving my dream, honestly, I sometimes have a moment to have a bigger dream. Despite some despondency, controlling it well must be a new dream of mine. Of course, I have an ambition of getting great success as a healthier writer. But I want to become a person who can create great writings by fully enduring daily life, and to live a sincere life based on my own writings, which is my dream.”
 
 
  
Lee Nahyoung/Nah Young(pen name)
Dept. of Creative Writing in Dankook University  
 
2022 Won a prize in the 13th Beautiful Writing Literature Awards
2010 Selected as the winner of children’s story in the Seoul Shinmun Annual Spring Literary Contest(Smile When Shooting Stars Fall Down)
2008 Received the Rookie of the Year Award in 『The World of Children’s Literature』 (I am Deulba!)
 
Works
(Sunshine Prince)(2015),  (The World of Blue Eyes)(2018), (Smile When Shooting Stars Fall Down)(2021)
(Talitha Koum)(2023)