After spending her life as a soldier, a reporter and a novelist, Le Minh Khue tells what it’s like being the first foreign writer to receive a prestigious South Korean literary award.

Writer Le Minh Khue.

Le Minh Khue’s first book Nhung Ngoi Sao, Trai Dat, Dong Song (The Stars, the Earth, the River), published in English by US’s Curbstone Publishing House in 1997, has won the international literature prize named after South Korean writer Byeong-ju Lee. Khue is the first foreign writer to receive the South Korean award.

You have won a prestigious international prize. How do you feel?

This is the most valuable and meaningful prize I have ever received. I found myself incredibly moved in front of the unprejudiced organising board and jury.

I think I was lucky because I’m a female writer. Perhaps I was given priority. They chose me as the first place winner of the annual literature prize.

Furthermore, my work spoke about how Viet Nam suffered through cruel wars. The country was divided for a long time by war and the people suffered in misery. South Korea is very similar to Viet Nam. I think the jury felt great sympathy for my stories.

In gaining the prize, I obtained equality because I worked very hard and seriously. My writing skills are natural, but I still expend a lot of effort.

Anyway, I was lucky, truly. There are many more talented writers in Viet Nam, South Korea and in the world. They are worthy of honour.

Many domestic readers don’t know much about the book which won you this prize. Would you say something about it?

Curbstone Press Publishing House selected several short stories that I had released in Viet Nam to translate and publish in the US.

The jury said regarding the book that it concerned war’s influence on the country, problems after the war and poverty and cultural erosion in the society when the country began its doi moi (renewal) process. They also remarked that the book included powerful stories about complex postwar struggles in Viet Nam.

The New York Times Book Review said that my book is not a bitter book, or a book with an overt political agenda.

“Instead, The Stars, the Earth, the River is concerned with love and poverty, greed and suspicion, dignity and death, and the long-lasting effects of battle on those who manage to stay alive,” it said.

What inspired you to write The Stars, the Earth, the River? How long did it take to complete it?

I enlisted in the People’s Army for Youth Volunteers Brigade when I was 16. I worked along the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the war. Even then, I admitted that literature was my talisman and I carried with me the paperbacks of Chekhov, Hemingway and Jack London.

My time working in the army helped me experience misery and understand the loss of war. It gave me material for my later work.

The book’s 14 short stories were written over the last two decades during and after the war.

How did you send the book to the organising board?

After my work was printed in the US, it was introduced on the web site www.amazon.com. Several foreign writers read it and brought it to the attention of the jury.

Up until now, very few Vietnamese writers have received international prizes. What’s the reason in your opinion?

I think they are less fortunate than me.

My work was translated and welcomed in the US before it was sent to South Korea, while many other domestic writers have difficulty getting their books translated, though the works are excellent.

Moreover, advertisement and publicity are also very important to gain exposure for the work.

You are a veteran of the war against the US and worked as a war correspondent for Tien Phong (Vanguard) and Giai Phong (Liberation) Newspaper. Now that you are a writer, what work do you enjoy the most?

Well, all these jobs have been very important to my life. The different positions, have offered me different views of life. Now I write what I feel.

You know, in the war, 90 per cent of the population came together to protect the country. I was not an exception. I have lived, as and am living as, an ordinary Vietnamese person, I think.

I worked as a reporter from 1969 to 1978 and witnessed many changes in society. This was a very important time in my life.

Though its been a long time, my character hasn’t changed. I just change my writing style. A writer can’t keep the same style for ten books, after all.

I tend to write about changes in society and examine how they influence people’s lives.

How many books have you published? Do you have a favourite?

More than 10. But I’m not satisfied with any of them. Whenever a book is printed, I don’t think its very good. Then, I try to work harder.

For me, writing is serious. I write as if writing were breathing, writing for the sake of writing. I’m always careful with my words.

Do you have any thoughts on contemporary Vietnamese literature?

I think we have many good writers who are responsible to what they write. However, some writers work for commercial purposes. I will never allow myself to write what is easy. My stories don’t aim to entertain. I don’t write for fun.

How about your work now? Do you have a plan to publish more books?

Now I’m retired. I still write as well as other writers. I will publish several short stories sometime in the future, but I don’t want to talk about what I haven’t finished yet.

(Source: VNS)