Kim's debut work "No Knocking in This House," a short story published in 2003, is about five women living in five separate rooms in a boarding house, where the rooms are tiny and close together. It won
Daesan Literary Award. Next, her short story collection,
Run, Daddy, Run, entered the spotlight, earning her the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award in 2005. Twenty-five years old at the time of the award, Kim was the youngest award winner ever recorded, which was all the more unprecedented as she was also a new writer who had not yet published any short story collections. In 2008, her short story "Knife Marks" won the Yi Hyosŏk Literary Award. Likewise, she was the youngest to ever be awarded this prize. It was a bestseller, and in 2014 was
adapted into the
E J-yong film
My Brilliant Life starring
Kang Dong-won and
Song Hye-kyo. The English translation of the novel is scheduled to be published by Forge Books in January, 2021. ==Personal life and teaching career==