Singer-writer Lee Rang [Yonhap]
Singer-writer Lee Rang [Yonhap]

Singer-songwriter and writer Lee Rang has won a Japanese literary prize for her autobiographical essay collection "A History of Mad Women: Mothers and Daughters."

Publisher Iyagijangsu said Friday that the collection, released in Japan last November, received the 2026 Nagai Kafu Literary Prize — the first time a Korean national has won a prestigious general literary prize in Japan spanning all genres.

The book was published in Japan under the title "Sorinagara Utai, Hanaseba Ii" ("You Can Sing It Aloud, You Can Say It"). It confronts the brutal experiences of three generations of women in Lee's family — her maternal grandmother, her mother and herself — and the patriarchal violence running through them all.

Particularly notable is Lee's framing of her older sister, who died in December 2021, as someone who had burned through every last reserve of energy before going out — a "death by exhaustion" — expanding a personal tragedy into a social and structural critique. Japanese translator Saito Mariko translated the book. Judges, including Akutagawa Prize-winning author Kanehara Hitomi, praised it as "a book to open only when you have reached the very limits of life."

The award ceremony will be held Nov. 2 in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The prize carries a cash award of 1 million yen ($6,310).

A graduate of the Korea National University of Arts' film directing program, Lee has channeled the voices of poverty, alienation and the socially marginalized into her music since her debut. At the 14th Korean Music Awards, she auctioned off her trophy on the spot rather than accept the prize money, sending a pointed message. Her third studio album, "The Wolf Has Come," released in 2021, swept the 19th Korean Music Awards, taking both Album of the Year and Best Folk Album.

Lee also recently won a hard-fought legal battle over freedom of expression. Ahead of her scheduled performance at the 2022 Buma Democratic Uprising Commemoration ceremony, the Ministry of Interior and Safety objected to lyrics in her signature song "The Wolf Has Come" and demanded she replace it, leading her to withdraw from the event. In June, the Seoul Central District Court ruled the ministry's intervention constituted "illegal censorship that violated an artist's personal rights" and found the government partially liable for damages.


shee@heraldcorp.com