[Publishing Industry News] From the Nobel Prize to the Highest U.S. Honor, the “National Book Critics Circle Award”... Han Kang’s “We Do Not Part” Scores a Major Triumph

“Nobel Prize in Literature” After her achievement, “Han Kang” sweeps the “National Book Critics Circle Award”, the highest U.S. honor

The global standing of Korean literature has once again been reaffirmed on the world’s mainstream stage. “Han Kang”, a “Nobel Prize in Literature” laureate, delivered a standout result as her full-length novel “We Do Not Part” (English edition title: We Do Not Part) won the “National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Award” in the fiction category—an honor widely recognized as one of the three major literary prizes in the United States. At the 2025 awards ceremony in New York on the 26th (local time), the work—co-translated by Lee Ye-won and Paige Morris—was named the final winner after a fierce contest. It marks a historic milestone showing that Korean literature has firmly moved into the world’s top tier.

Korea’s “golden tower” landmark achievement, an honor on a par with the “Pulitzer Prize”

For a Korean author, the “National Book Critics Circle Award” marks the second win since 2023, when poet Kim Hye-soon won for “Wing Fantasia: The Sound of a Dream”. In the fiction category, however, its significance is especially heightened as “the first Korean author ever.” Each year, the award selects the best book published in English, and it is held in the highest regard—standing shoulder to shoulder with the “Pulitzer Prize” and the “National Book Award.” This year’s victory, achieved by overcoming rigorous judging by specialized U.S. publishing critics, clearly demonstrates that the literary depth of “Han Kang” has created broad, universal resonance beyond language and borders.