VOL.69/2024.04

 

The Future of Korean Novels: Gen-MZ Writers

 

2023.02.20

 

There is a new wind blowing into Korean literature. With the emergence of new media, we hear that literature will soon face its demise every time. However, even in the era of YouTube and Netflix, Korean literature still keeps its blood young with the inflow of new writers. At the center of the new flow stands the so-called Gen-MZ (Millennials + Gen Z) writers, born in the 1980s and 1990s. Gen MZ writers, such as Choi Eun-Yung, Chung Se-Rang, Jang Ryu-Jin, Park Sang-Young, Kim Cho-Yeop, and Cheon Seon-Ran, are highlighted as the future of Korean literature. As the new year 2023 loomed, many publishers released a list of books to be published, which includes Gen-MZ writers' names.

 

 

The New Troika

 

It is no exaggeration to say that the new Troika leads the Korean novel market in the 2020s: Writer Chung Se-Rang, Choi Eun-Yung, and Kim Cho-Yeop. The three achieved the challenging feat of selling more than 100,000 copies with their first and representative writings, demonstrating their long reign on the top list of best sellers since their books were released. It reminds me of the 1990s and 2000s. Writers Shin Kyung-Sook, Gong Ji-Young, and Eun Hee-Kyoung were the Troika during that time, being young female writers in their 30s and selling hundreds and thousands of copies since their debut. Their influence was genuinely formidable. The metaphor for the three, Troika, was meaningful in that each writer's influence had considerable power when collected. With rivalry, the writers were summoned in articles together whenever one released a new piece, and the competition fueled the Korean literature market to grow further. The feminist literature era started with the successive hits of writer Shin Kyung-Sook’s Deep Sorrow (Munhakdongne Publishing Group), Eun Hee-Kyoung’s A Bird's Gift (Munhakdongne Publishing Group), and Gong Ji-Young’s Go Alone Like a Rhinoceros Horn (Hainaim Inc.).

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 52 – Go to the interview with writer Eun Hee-Kyoung

 

Munhakdongne Publishing Group, the publisher of their books, rose fresh and held a powerful position in the literature market while crushing the strong reign of the three publishers: Changbi Publishers, Inc., Moonji Publishing, and Minumsa Publishing. Therefore, the recent emergence of three famous female writers with unique styles may change the landscape of Korean literature in the 2020s.

 

 

Writer Choi Eun-Yung, born in 1984, rose like a quiet miracle. Only a few knew her when her short story collection Shoko’s Smile (Munhakdongne Publishing Group), a book that takes her first story Shoko’s Smile as a title piece, was published in 2016. The book tells warm stories of two individuals of different nationalities and languages meeting, growing together, and overcoming challenges. Without the writer's fame or spotlights shone by media outlets, the novel collection silently became a steady seller with only readers' word of mouth. The sales continued to increase, and the first novel collection of a new writer categorized as a writer of pure literature sold more than 200,000 copies for the first time in almost ten years.
Writer Choi Eun-Yung says she came to have the desire to write her own stories after reading female writers like Yang Gui-Ja and Eun Hee-Kyoung, and soon released Someone Harmless to Me (Munhakdongne Publishing Group) in 2018. She gained attention with her works, showing in-depth reflection and insight into social issues, such as feminism, immigration, and LGBTQ, and a warm sensibility that keeps affection and belief towards humanity. In addition to winning five or more literary awards and getting good comments from the industry, writer Choi Eun-Yung sold more than 100,000 copies of each novel collection released after her debut, becoming a commercially successful writer.
She published her first full-length novel, Bright Night (Munhakdongne Publishing Group), in 2021 under much expectation. Shedding light on the lives of a family of four generations – from great-grandmother to grandmother, mother, and the main character – the story naturally covers 100 years. It was a successful start as a writer of full-length novels. Also, writer Choi Eun-Yung released a short-story collection, No Need to Struggle (Maumsanchaek), last year, paving her path. Since writer Choi Eun-Yung and Shin Kyung-Sook are both franchise stars of Munhakdongne Publishing Group, the biggest literature publisher in Korea, it seems like both readers and the literature industry are looking forward to the new rising writer Choi Eun-Yung, winner of multiple literary awards, to play the role of Shin Kyung-Sook in the new era.

 

The New Sensibility in SF Novels

 

 

Among the three writers, the emergence of Chung Se-Rang and Kim Cho-Yeop had a massive impact on expanding Korean literature genres. Sci-Fi novels used to be a permanent peripheral of Korean literature, but they are now leading the era. Writer Chung Se-Rang, born in 1984, debuted with the SF magazine Fantastic in 2010. She had long unknown days but kept her identity as an SF genre writer and continued to release long novels.
While continuing her work, School Nurse Ahn Eunyoung (Minumsa Publishing), an SF novel that feels close to life released in 2015, became a hit. The novel sets its stage at a private high school named M, where the main character Ahn Eun-Young works as a school nurse who can see ghosts while serving as an exorcist. The novel unravels small and big incidents happening in school. The writing was created as a six-episode drama produced by director Lee Kyong-Mi, which helped boost sales of the original piece. Writer Chung Se-Rang also wrote Jane, Jaewook, Jaehoon (EunHaeng NaMu Publishing), and Han-A from Earth (Nanda Publishing), continuing to release SF novels. Fifty People (Changbi Publishers), a novel released after becoming famous, showed her imagination in the era when disaster became a part of everyday life. From Sisun (Munhakdongne Publishing Group) tells stories from women's points of view, landing a punch on patriarchal society, and gets the active support of female peer readers.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 20 – Go to the interview with writer Chung Se-Rang

 

 

Kim Cho-Yeop is a writer who fits the nickname “monster newbie.” Her first book, If We Cannot Move at the Speed of Light (East-Asia Publishing), was a surprise. She became notable by winning the grand prize and honorary award in the field of mid- and short-length stories in the 2nd Korea Science Literature Award, with Missing Inside a Library and If We Cannot Move at the Speed of Light in 2017. The fact that the writer was a 26-year-old graduate student at Pohang University of Science and Technology majoring in chemistry and biochemistry surprised many. In 2019, when she released If We Cannot Move at the Speed of Light, her piece topped the list of the Book of the Year of major media outlets and sold more than 100,000 copies in one year. Seven short stories in her first collection clearly show female identity and have deep philosophy enough to make it challenging to categorize it as a mere SF novel. The 6th piece, Missing Inside a Library especially brings out the writer's humanistic imagination as the story is about the main character going on a journey searching for her mom's record in a library where people's minds are uploaded after death.
After releasing her first piece, writer Kim Cho-Yeop has continued to publish her works actively. She wrote two full-length novels, Greenhouse at the End of the Earth (Blossom Books) and Meuraemosa (Hyundae Munhak), and novel collections named The World We Just Left (Hanibook) and Planet Language Bookstore (Maumsanchaek), releasing four novels in 2021 alone. In addition, the writer, who is also a person with hearing impairment, published Becoming a Cyborg (Sakyejul Publishing) with lawyer Kim Won-Young to show consideration of disability and Korean society, making the piece her 5th book to release in one year. In 2022, she wrote her first non-fiction, Books and Coincidences (Yolimwon Publishing Group). Therefore, we believe there is a high chance that we will also see her new books this year.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 19 – Go to the interview with writer Kim Cho-Yeop

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 50 – Go to the interview with writer Kim Won-Young

 

 

Cheon Seon-Ran is also a new rising SF novel writer. She was born in 1993 and majored in creative writing. She started her career by winning the 4th Korea Science Literature Award with her piece A Thousand Blues. The novel garnered attention for it is a story about life and relations between a racehorse near its euthanasia and a robot rider. A Thousand Blues (East-Asia Publishing) depicts a story of the hurt and the weak. It consoles people feeling dizzy from the speed of ceaselessly developing technologies and sheds light on beings blurred amongst technologies.
Writer Cheon Seon-Ran released Nine (Changbi Publishers) and The Savior at Night (Safehouse) in 2021, and No Land (Hanibook) and Rang and My Desert (Hyundae Munhak) in 2022. Her most recent book, Rang and My Desert, tells a story filled with longing for human beings from a robot's viewpoint. Likewise, the writer continues to release pieces drawing relations among humans, nature, and animals.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 30 – Go to the interview with writer Cheon Seon-Ran

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 42 – Go to the article about Nine

 

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we are now living in an era of bigger fears of climate change driven by drastic shifts in the climate and the relationship between humans and nature. Therefore, the young generation actively supports the two young SF novel writers, Kim Cho-Yeop and Cheon Seon-Ran, for having a new sensibility, such as climate crisis and feminity, and the relationship between nature and humans.

 

Have You Ever Heard of “Pangyo Literature” or “Queer Literature”?

 

 

Writer Jang Ryu-Jin, born in 1986, has a unique history of becoming famous even before releasing her first piece. Before writing her novel, she worked for IT companies in Pangyo for more than seven years after graduating from college. After her first piece, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, was released in October 2018 on Changbi Publishers' website for free, the book recorded more than 400,000 views, gaining incredible popularity among workers in Pangyo. The book wittingly depicts the pettiness in daily life the main character experiences while enjoying his small hobby as he goes through ups and downs in life working at a small IT company. With lively depictions of work life, the book became popular among people working in the same area, creating a new term, “Pangyo Literature.”
In addition to her novel collection, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (Changbi Publishers), her first full-length novel, To The Moon (Changbi Publishers), was released after the first one. It was renowned for its cheerful style showing sides of the young generation wanting to get rich quickly through investments in cryptocurrency rather than working at an office while setting three female workers in their thirties as the main characters.
Jang Ryu-Jin writes the daily lives of workers in their 20s and 30s as the main themes of her books. Therefore, her books are particularly popular as readers aged similar to the writer could relate to the book a lot. For example, a phrase from The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, “Work less and earn more while you live,” is a famous remark among young corporate workers.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 45 – Go to the interview with writer Jang Ryu-Jin

 

 

Writer Park Sang-Young, born in 1988, is a male writer struggling alone while female writers dominate the scene. He brought a genre called “Queer Literature” into the mainstream category of Korean literature by making homosexuality the central theme of his books since his debut. The Tears of an Unknown Artist, or Zaytun Pasta (Munhakdongne Publishing Group) - his first novel released in 2018 - was shocking in many ways. Including his cover piece, he wrote many short stories with unusual titles, like Fake Viagra and Drugs Made in China, a Short Joke About Urine that Doesn’t Collect Anywhere, or Missing: Paris Hilton. There is no one to beat writer Park Sang-Young in depicting the lives of Gen-MZ, who seek to build human relationships through Tinder, share moments in life through Instagram, and fight to win love and work. He also released his first full-length romance and thriller novel, I Want to be One-Dimensional (Munhakdongne Publishing Group), in 2021, which starts with a corpse being found at a lake. The book Love In the Big City (Changbi Publishers) is a novel published in 2019 and translated into English. It became a preliminary candidate for the Man Booker International Prize in 2022, making Park a globally famous novelist.
Writer Park Sang-Young continues to tell the young to love relentlessly, and he diligently writes novels without any rest. In the last series of Love Trilogy released in 2022, About Trust (Munhakdongne Publishing Group), following Love In the Big City and I Want to be One-Dimensional, he draws a clear portrait of the COVID-19 stricken era. The book follows the lives of four male characters, depicting workers' plights, a sense of isolation given by social distancing during the pandemic, and discrimination and exclusion against the sexual minority.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 48 – Go to the interview with writer Park Sang-Young

 

Young Gen-MZ novelists are versatile and diligent. They release one or more novels annually and write non-fiction on diverse topics. They are flexible in choosing themes, like SF and work life, and they deny a dichotomous approach dividing high and pop culture, unlike writers of the past. They are not dwindled by literary discussions made by critiques and build their unique world. In that sense, the landscape of Korean literature will widen thanks to those young writers.

 

 

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Written by Kim Seul-Gi (Journalist at the Department of Culture of Maeil Business Newspaper)