Agnita Tennant, nee Hong, was born in Korea and educated at Chong-ju Girls' High School and Yonsei University. She married an Englishman, Roger Tennant, and has lived in Leicestershire since 1964. She started translating Korean stories in the 1970S, and published a collection in 1972. She worked as a librarian for Leicestershire Libraries and Information Service until retiring in 1993. In 1990 she received a Ph.D. from Loughborough University for her study of Thomas Hardy's influence on Korean literature.