A head pops out of the toilet, a woman gets pregnant from birth control pills—South Korean Booker Prize nominee Bora Chung's short stories are full of horror, inspired by her own lonely life.
An academic specialising in Slavic literature, Chung was considered a "genre writer" and excluded from South Korea's mainstream literary scene. Until recently, she was relatively unknown to local readers.
Her stories -- which combine science fiction, horror and fantasy—are not considered "pure" literature by Seoul's cultural elite. But her life took a dramatic turn when her 2017 collection "Cursed Bunny" caught the eye of translator Anton Hur.