[2] She made her literary debut with the publication of "Night of the Pilgrims" (Sullyejaui bam), which earned her the 1968 New Writer Prize, sponsored by the journal World of Thoughts (Sasanggye).
She was a member of the coterie that published The Seventies (Chilsimnyeondae) along with Kim Hyeong-yeong, Yoon Sang-gyu, Lim Jeong-nam, and Jung Hui-seong.
[3] In her early career Kang utilized nihilism as a point of departure from which to blueprint a future of free thought and equality between men.
In response to the government’s violations of human rights and fundamental liberties during the late 1960s, the poet struggled to map a new path opposed to persecution and oppression; her works contained a measure of hope at the same time despairing at the then social and political situation.
Her later work, less dark and tragic than her previous poetry, contains optimism for the future while it still acknowledges the problems of the social conditions of the time.