VOL.95/2026.06

Korean Authors

 

Author-illustrator Kim Dong Su

 

2021.10.05

 

 

Please introduce yourself to our readers.

 

In my case, it’s about “coexistence”. I think it’s a story about coexistence. Hi, I am Kim Dong Su, an illustrated book writer.

 

How was your childhood?

 

I was just an ordinary kid. I like to draw so I attended an art academy on and off. My dream was also to become a painter.

 

What motivated you to become a full-time writer?

 

I majored in Western painting at college. There was a magazine called Monthly Illustration. Seeing that, I thought I also wanted to do something like that too. In that magazine there was a contest that often appeared. I entered the contest called the Korea Publishing Art Competition and I won the grand prize. That made me wonder whether I could do this as a full-time job. There was the Borim Creative Picture Book Contest in which I received an excellence award. They publish the book when you receive an award, so that is how I got my first book published. That’s how I started.

 

What’s your favorite hobby?

 

As you can tell. I like comic books and graphic novels. I read them when I have time. And if you look over there, they are made of beads. When I have time, I make things like that. Or I sometimes make mobiles like this.

 

How do you usually get ideas?

 

When I was in college, I had a friend sitting next to me in the lab. We were close friends. He drew a cross-sectional view of a duck down jacket cut with a knife. One day, I suddenly remembered the picture by my friend. Oh, how about a child goes out in that duck down jacket and meets the ducks? That’s how I started in my book Goodbye (BORIM PRESS). When I was in my second year of middle school a kitten got killed in the road. I looked very closely at that. I think those memories are the source of my ideas.

 

 

What is the most rewarding moment as a writer?

 

While working I tend to work alone, isolated. ‘What am I doing now?’, ‘Can I do this?’ In my case, although I started early, I haven’t completed many works, so sometimes I feel like my choice was wrong. There are times when I feel like that. I started on social media in June of last year. I get a lot of feedback there ? and then that makes me think that my choice was not wrong after all. I thought about it for a moment. Getting reactions from them is very rewarding as a writer.

 

Is there any writing work you want to do in the future?

 

I have an older brother. I also had another brother older than him. He passed away when I was four because he had a heart disease. I never even got to meet him. As I got older, I kept thinking of him. So I hope he can rest comfortably in heaven. What kind of place would that be? By expanding the range would children who left because of accidents or abuse live there? I thought they would live comfortably there. That’s the reason.

 

What are your dreams for the future?

 

I hope that the work I am doing can be published as a book. That’s my dream. And I hope I’ll be healthy in the future. I have those two goals.

 

 

* The interview and video were produced as a part of the K-Book Online Marketing Support Project of the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea (KPIPA).

 

 

---