KO Myeong-Cheol obtained his Ph.D. in Korean Language and Literature from Sungkyunkwan University, with a dissertation on 'Issues in the Theory of Ethnic Literature in the 1970s.' He began his literary criticism career after winning the New Writer Award from Monthly Literature in 1998 for his piece titled ‘The Flame of Ethnic Literature Rising from the Periphery: The Fictional World of Hyun Ki-young.’ His published works include The Gravity of Literature (2021), Beyond World Literature (2021), and The Narrative of the Shaking Earth (2016), along with numerous edited and co-authored volumes.