[1] Kim Iryeop was born to a Methodist pastor and his wife in a northern part of the Korean Empire and became a modern literary, Buddhist and feminist thinker and activist.

Kim became a prolific poet and essayist, her writings engaging cultural and social issues, and a leading figure of the feminist “new woman” (sinyŏja) movement in the 1920s that promoted women’s self-awareness, freedom (including sexual freedom), and rights in the context of the complex intersection of traditional Korean Confucian society, Westernization and modernization, and Japanese colonial domination.Having completed her primary education after the death of her parents, she moved to Seoul to attend Ehwa Hakdang (1913–1915), which later became Ewha Girls' High School.

Iryeop influenced the Korean literary society of her time by writing about activities that reflected trends in the women's liberation movement and this was her impetus for her founding New Woman.

Over the years, a great number of her critical essays, poems and short novels about women's liberation struggling against the oppressive traditions of the period of Korea under Japanese rule were published in such Korean-language daily newspapers as The Dong-a Ilbo and The Chosun Ilbo, as well as in literary magazines including Kaebyeok and Chosun Mundan (Korea Literary World).

[1] Iryeop ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1933 and moved into Sudeoksa in 1935, where she lived until she died.