By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Park Kyung-ni, one of the nation's top writers, has been in a coma since suffering a stroke on April 4, according to the Toji Cultural Center.
The 82-year-old novelist is receiving medical treatment in a Seoul hospital but is in critical condition.
Park, one of the most revered living authors in Korea, had stayed at Toji Cultural Center since she was diagnosed with lung cancer last July but refused to be treated and moved to the center.
She recently published three new poems in monthly literary magazine, ``Hyundae Munhak (Contemporary Literature),'' her first publication in eight years.
Her landmark epic novel, "The Land," regarded as a masterpiece of contemporary Korean literature, has been included in the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works.
The novel, which took 25 years to write, depicts the turbulence at the turn of the 20th century when the Korean people were struggling against Japanese imperialism and revolves around 300 characters. The novel has significant literary artistry in style, native folk language and diverse character portrayals.
Park was born in 1926 in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province. She graduated from Jinju Girls' High School in 1946 and began her writing career with the publication of two short stories, ``Calculations'' (Gyesan, 1955) and ``Black is Black, White is White'' (Heuk heuk baek baek, 1956). She has since won numerous literary prizes, including the Woltan Literature Award, for Land.
Toji Cultural Center was established in 1999 on the spot of her original home in Wonju, where she wrote from 1980 to 1997.