Kim.Hyun Sook author page

Kim Hyun Sook biography

Kim Hyun Sook is a South Korean author best known as the co-writer and subject of the young adult graphic memoir Banned Book Club. The work recounts her experiences as a first-year university student who joins an underground reading group during the military dictatorship in South Korea, exploring themes of censorship, protest and civic courage for teen readers.

Banned Book Club was co-written with Ryan Estrada and illustrated by Ko Hyung-Ju, presenting a first-person narrative shaped from Kim’s recollections and contemporary records. The book offers historical context to the student democracy movement while foregrounding the risks and friendships forged through clandestine reading.

The first English-language edition of Banned Book Club was published by Iron Circus Comics in 2020.