Heo Sang-wook

Born in 1971 into a poor family, he struggled with vision problems caused by illness and became completely blind in 1999. Before losing his sight, he worked various jobs to make a living and experienced many failures. At the time of his blindness, he was married with a son, leaving him no time to be disheartened.
To prepare for life as a visually impaired person, he earned a middle school diploma through the high school equivalency exam in 2000 and enrolled in the Daejeon Special School for the Blind in 2001. After graduating, he worked as a massage therapist.
In 2010, driven by a desire to write, he studied poetry at the Pai Chai University’s Lifelong Education Center. He has since consistently published poetry collections. As a result, he won the 2023 Gusangsotdae Literary Award. He now operates a 'Poet Massage Center' in Daejeon while continuing to write poetry. He proudly reflects on how, despite having only an elementary school education before his blindness and wandering from factory to factory, he graduated from high school and became a poet after losing his sight.