She describes her work and writing process as follows: “I deal with heavy themes and my narrative voice is fairly intense as well.
Choi says she took up writing purely for her own satisfaction and comfort, and calls her early work “kitchen-table fiction,” a term sometimes used, notably by writers Haruki Murakami[4] and Kim Yeonsu,[5] to refer to fiction written by non-professional writers at the kitchen table after coming home from their day jobs.
She decided to try writing a full-length novel before it was too late, and after three failed attempts, she won the Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2010 for Dangsin yeopeul seucheogan geu sonyeoui ireumeun (당신 옆을 스쳐간 그 소녀의 이름은 The Name of the Girl Who Brushed Against You Is...).
She has received no formal training on creative writing and learned solely from reading books by her favorite authors, such as Lee Mun Ku, Jeon Sungtae, Franz Kafka, and Cormac McCarthy.
[7] On Paengi (팽이 The Top), Choi Jin Young's first short story collection dealing with various themes, literary critic Gang Gyeong-seok writes: “While ‘Dongabang’ (돈가방 Briefcase of Cash) and ‘Chang’ (창 Window) both lead their protagonists down the path to violence, ‘Eli’ (엘리 Elly), ‘Cheotsarang’ (첫사랑 First Love), and ‘Paengi' (팽이 The Top) follow the awakening and growth of their characters.
‘Eodijjeum’ (어디쯤 Whereabouts) and ‘Woldeubil 401-ho’ (월드빌 401호 Worldville Unit 401) portray the world as an exitless catastrophe and explore the full spectrum of the relativization or denial of fate.
Rather than simply observing the encroaching sense of ‘apprehension, resentment, guilt, or shame’ that fate has forced on us, Choi captures the point at which we reach our limits and explode, and zeroes in on the vital energy we have left in us even when we hit this dead end.”[8] As Gang Gyeong-seok points out, Choi’s characters—ranging from low-income earners and contract workers to women, jobless youths, and teens—not only embody the world of pain and poverty they live in, but also channel their pent-up anxiety and despair into an explosive energy that fuels life itself.
In addition to having an excellent command of the language and sensibilities of her generation, she is a rising artist who has carved out a unique path forward.