[2] She is an author from the Korean 386 generation (Coin termed in the early 1990s describing writers who were in their 30s, attended university in the 1980s, and born in the 1960s).

[3] She, along with Shin Kyung-sook and Gong Ji-young, is one of the prominent new wave of female writers from that group.

In fact, her book The Long Road (which won the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award the same year it was published[7]) is the only piece of “expat” Korean fiction that has been translated into English.

In 2003 Kim won the Yi Sang Literary award for her work Ocean and Butterfly (Bada-wa nabi) and in 2010 she won the Dong-in Literary Award for Bye, Elena (Annyeong, ellena).

Her latest work in Korean, To Be Insane (Michil su issgessni, i salm-e) had its publication delayed at Kim's request.