 Following Liberation, Kim entered Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, and graduated with a degree in Korean Literature.Kim made his official literary debut in 1949 while still a student, with the publication of "Night in the Mountains" ("Sanjungya") and "Ode to a White Pagoda” ("Baegtapsong") in New World.Kim worked for the Hyundai Munhak Monthly and taught at Kyun Kwan University

During the period marked by the devastating aftermath of the Korean War, Kim Gu-yong focused his poetic objective on the treatment of the postwar psychosocial and political upheaval, through the unique lens of the Buddhist religious tradition.