Bora Chung is a South Korean writer and translator. She is best known for her short story collection Cursed Bunny (2017). The English edition of Cursed Bunny was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.
Bora Chung was born in 1976 in Seoul. Her parents were both dentists. She completed her graduate studies in Russian and East European area studies at Yale University and earned a PhD in Slavic literature from Indiana University. Chung went on to teach Russian language, literature, and science fiction studies at Yonsei University in South Korea.
Chung decided to become a writer while studying at university. She listed her literary influences as including the works of Park Wan-suh, Bruno Schulz, Bruno Jasieński, Andrei Platonov, and Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, as well as the Samguk yusa folktales.
In 1998, Bora Chung won the Yonsei Literature Prize for her short story The Head. Additionally, she received second prizes at the 2008 Digital Literature Awards and the 2014 Gwacheon Science Center SF Awards.
Chung has written three novels and three collections of short stories. Her notable works include Cursed Bunny (2017), which was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.
The ten stories in Cursed Bunny borrow from different genres, including magical realism, horror, and science fiction. The book uses creepy fetishes and proliferating waste as metaphors for the female condition.
As Chung explained, "The stories in Cursed Bunny are meant to be unsettling and to challenge the reader's perceptions."
In 2022, the English edition of Cursed Bunny, translated by Anton Hur, received significant recognition. It was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and later longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2023. Hur has also translated other works by Chung, including Your Utopia (2024) and the novella Grocery List (2024). Hur announced that her novel Red Sword would be published in English in 2025, followed by another novel, Midnight Timetable, in 2026.
Chung is also an accomplished translator, translating contemporary prose from Russian and Polish into Korean. She has translated works by authors such as Bruno Schulz and Ludmila Petrushevskaya.
Chung is also a social activist. Her writing has appeared in Women's News, and she has spoken out for women's rights and social justice.
Bora Chung currently resides in Seoul.
