In 1985, Gong Ji-Young received her Bachelor's in Arts in Literature from Yonsei University. At that time she worked as a writer at a publishing company and at The Council of Writers for Freedom and Practice, which is now called The Writers Association of Korea (WAK). She has participated in demonstration for Korea's democracy in the 1980s. She was sent to a detention center for joining anti-vote rigging demonstration and decided to become a writer. In 1988, she made a literary debut through her novel "Dawn". In the middle of the 1990s, her novels "Mackerel", "Human Decency" and "Go Alone Like the Rhinoceros' Horn" were on the bestseller list concurrently. In the early 2000s, she sold her novel "My Sister Bongsoon" for almost 1.6 million volumes.