Flight attendant-author Lee Ro-ah wins youth literature award

Lee Ro-ah, an author and international flight attendant, navigates the complexities of balancing a demanding career with her literary pursuits. She recently received the 2024 Munhakdongne Youth Literature Award for her novel 'Wagwagi Was There,' and has published two more full-length novels this year.

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My job is an element that organizes and sustains my daily life, creating a routine that allows me to write.

Lee views her job as a flight attendant not as a hindrance, but as an essential element that structures her daily life, supports her writing routine, and provides a unique perspective. "My job is an element that organizes and sustains my daily life, creating a routine that allows me to write," she explained in a recent interview.

Her life often involves a temporal disconnect, where her work schedule dictates a reality of "living in anticipation of the near future." Flight attendants typically receive their rosters only a month in advance, making it difficult to plan even a few weeks ahead. This constant deferral of plans, Lee observes, paradoxically leads to neglecting the immediate present – today, tomorrow, or this week.

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Living in anticipation of the near future.

Despite the challenges, including significant time zone shifts and the physical toll of long-haul flights, Lee finds inspiration. She describes the intense struggle with sleep patterns after overnight flights, leading to periods of sleeplessness where "melancholy and anxiety grow and attack, and it's a time when you can't talk to anyone." To cope, she immediately closes all the curtains in her hotel room upon arrival, a ritual to "erase the path of time and avoid getting lost."

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Melancholy and anxiety grow and attack, and it's a time when you can't talk to anyone.

Lee's journey into writing began early, submitting to novel contests since middle school. She describes her persistence not as a sign of innate talent, but as a stubborn refusal to quit, fueled by a self-deceptive conviction that "if I just finish it, I'll get selected." This unwavering dedication to writing, regardless of her circumstances, has solidified her identity as a novelist. Her first completed work after college, 'Wagwagi Was There,' tells the story of a high school student who encounters a mysterious child named 'Wagwagi' beneath an underpass, a narrative touching on themes of memory and societal forgetting following a tragic flood.

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Erase the path of time and avoid getting lost.