VOL.77/2024.12

 

[Award-winning Korean Books ①]

Literary Awards: A Message of the Times

Major Korean literary award-winning books in 2024

 

2024.11.04

 

 

Where does the authority of the Nobel Prize in Literature derive from? Is it the huge prize of 1.3 billion won, or the long history of 124 years? Or is it the exceptional life stories of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite? Well, it’s probably a combination of all of these elements, but more than that, it’s the message that holds the secret to its long-standing authority. The Nobel Prize in Literature has always pointed out exactly what we, as a species, need to think about right now, and where we should be headed together. Each year, hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of people around the world share the same curiosity when the Prize is announced. They ask themselves, “Why that author? What did he or she write?” The Nobel Prize in Literature draws the world’s attention to a single point, like a giant magnifying glass that focuses the sun’s light, and sends out the most compelling message at that point in time. From this perspective, this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature has sent a message to all of humanity to “stop hatred and genocide and restore peace,” by selecting Han Kang.
Literary awards are given to people who have written great works of literature or contributed to the field. The art we call literature is also about capturing the times in language and making it an eternal record. As such, attempts to distinguish the most outstanding achievements in contemporary literature are also a reflection on the spirit of the times in which we live. And so, in this light, let’s take a look at the winners of the most prestigious literary awards in Korea for the year 2024.

 

The most prestigious literary award in Korea: Yi Sang Literary Award

 

First is the Yi Sang Literary Award. The Award is the most authoritative literary award recognized by readers in Korea today. Han Kang, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, also won this award in 2005 with Mongolian Spot. The judging panel of the 47th award (Kwon Young-Min, Ku Hyo-Seo, Kim Jong-Wook, Yoon Dae-Nyeong, and Jeon Kyung-Rin) chose Jo Kyung-Ran’s short story Preface, which received the most support among a selection of short- to mid-length novels released in Korea throughout 2023, as the grand prize winner of the 47th Yi Sang Literary Award this year.

 

 

Preface portrays the lives of ordinary people. It tells the story of Jae-Seo, who quits his job after a divorce and runs a copy shop that he took over from his father in a neighborhood on the outskirts of a big city, and Mi-Yong, who sells side dishes across the street, as they get to know each other and open their hearts. Although they are close in age and frequently bump into each other, Mi-Yong is just “someone you can’t say you don’t know or know well” to Jae-Seo. The local residents, who are mostly indigenous, are also unwilling to open their hearts to Mi-Yong simply because she has no husband or children and lives alone at her age. Then, one day, Jae-Seo reads the notes in the USB that Mi-Yong forgot to take back after printing, and he’s intrigued to learn more about her. Mi-Yong wrote, “I was a person who had lost myself since birth.” The notes reveal Mi-Yong’s past - born as the fourth child to a mother who gave birth to her first child at the age of 18, still underage, she was considered the “cause of her misery” and was forced to be a polite child who didn’t stand out from others. Announcing Preface as the grand prize winner, the judges stated the following reasons for their selection.

 

 

Trusted by literary readers: Dong-In Literary Award

 

The Dong-In Literary Award is also one of Korea’s most prestigious literary awards. Now in its 55th year, the Award is trusted by literary readers for its unique and sophisticated way of selecting winners. The Dong-In Literary Award’s judging panel (Jung Myeong-Gyo, Ku Hyo-Seo, Lee Seung-Woo, Kim In-Sook, and Kim Dong-Sik) collects recommendations through monthly readings throughout the year, and then selects the year’s winner at the end of the year. Since it is organized by Chosun Ilbo, it is a unique characteristic and strength that readers can follow thejudging process and see how the judges viewed the books at each reading. It allows readers to be interested in multiple works by different authors rather than just one awarded book.
The Dong-In Literary Award chooses its winner from a shortlist of nominees selected from January through September. As of the end of October - when this article is written - the winner has yet to be confirmed, but let’s take a look at what books have been considered for the award in 2024.

 

 

The historic and prestigious award now in its 69th year: Hyundae Munhak Award

 

The Hyundae Munhak Award is a long-standing and prestigious literary award, now in its 69th year. This year’s winner was Jung Young-Su’s A Piece of the Future. The judging process was based on works published in each literary magazine issued between December 2022 and November 2023 (between Winter 2022 and Fall 2023 for quarterly magazines). The nominees for the award were Kim Ji-Yeon’s Pet Debt, Moon Jin-Young’s The Lesser Hammered Nail, Park Ji-Young’s Funeral on Sale, Baek On-Yoo’s Rehabilitation, Lee Joo-Hye’s Fledging Under Process, Jung Seon-Im’s Us, Later, and Jung Yong-Joon’s How to Look at the Ocean.
The winning novel, A Piece of the Future, begins as “I,” the novel’s narrator, suffers through his mother’s suicide attempt. The shock is immense because his mother was the most optimistic person he knew. This event leads the narrator to learn about his mother’s life. She did not choose her father of her own free will. After giving birth to his older brother, they lived together, and after giving birth to him, she married his father and had to live stuck in this family. Yet, she always dreamed of a future that was free of this family. While taking care of his mother after a failed suicide attempt, the narrator comes across a note that his mother had left for him in the past, in which she wrote about things that never happened: her going to college, her getting a job, her traveling for business, and her traveling the world. Looking at the notes, he thinks that there are “pieces of the future” scattered all around.
Jung Young-Su was born in 1983 in Seoul, Korea, and debuted as a writer with The Quarterly Changbi (창작과비평) in 2014. His works include the short story collections Aficionados (Changbi) and Couples of Tomorrow (Munhakdongne). Novelist Pyun Hye-Young, who judged the final round, wrote about A Piece of the Future, “I want to confess that the author’s sentences, indifferent yet warm, wistful yet vivid, were a great comfort to me on days of unforeseeable future.”

 

 

Selecting Works that Best Match “Sensibility of the Day”: Today’s Writer Award

 

The Today’s Writer Award has announced that it will be reformed into a full-length novel contest after Kim Hwa-Jin’s About Naju (Munhakdongne) was selected for the 47th Today’s Writer Award in 2023. Minumsa, the organizer of the Award, stated on September 23 that the Award will be returning to its original identity. Founded in 1977, the Today’s Writer Award used to be a full-length novel contest before it was abolished in 2015. Since then, the Award has changed to a reader-voted selection of works published during the year that best fit the “sensibility of the day.” Many of the most promising writers in recent Korean literature, including Ku Byeong-Mo, Jang Gang-Myeong, Bae Soo-Ah, and Kim Cho-Yeop, were introduced to the world through the Award. Submissions for the 48th Today’s Writer Award are open until February 28, 2025. All writers, new or experienced, are eligible to submit a full-length novel of at least 500 pages of 200-word squared manuscript paper (plus a synopsis within one A4 page). The prize money (advance) is 30 million won, and the winner will be published in Minumsa’s Today’s Young Writer series; the winner is set to be announced next May.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 68 – Go to the interview with writer Kim Hwa-Jin

 

 

Expanding the horizons of Korean literature: Hankyoreh Literary Award

 

The winner of the 29th Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2024 was Ha Seung-Min’s full-length novel, Melanin (Hankyoreh Publishing). The protagonist, who was born with “blue melanin,” which makes his skin blue, faces discrimination even in the arms of his family. Ha depicts the painstaking process of how the protagonist regains his dignity as a human being regardless of his skin color. It makes us realize the prejudice and hatred within us. The unique background of Ha Seung-Min, who used to work in the IT and financial industries and started writing full-time in 2020, has also been a center of attention. The story also made headlines for being the only one of the 240 entries to make it to the final round with the full support of all the judges. After extensive debate, the 7 judges chose the story for its “incredible details of immigration history,” “compelling sentences and sophisticated ending,” and “the soulfulness and charm of the main character,” among other reasons. In her review, literary critic Seo Young-In wrote, “Melanin is a story about a grand dream; the dream of becoming a new kind of human race without giving up, even if it means death, disappearance, and pain.”

 

 

Distinguishing the most outstanding literary achievement: Hankook Ilbo Literary Award

 

Since the winner of the Hankook Ilbo Literary Award is announced in November each year, expectations are high as to which work will be selected for this year. The winner of the 56th Hankook Ilbo Literary Award in 2023 was Cheon Woon-Young’s Half of a Half of a Half (Munhakdongne), which is a short story collection about the lives of women from different generations and with different values, but who embrace the world with their own “tenderness.” The judges valued it highly for its “thoughtfulness towards writing that recreates the lives of our grandmothers and mothers’ generation, reaching a point where it is not possible to recreate and restore someone’s life in a documentary format.”
Born in Seoul in 1971, Cheon Woon-Young has been prolific since her debut in 2000, writing short story collections The Needle (Changbi), Merry (Moonji Publishing), Her Way of Using Tears (Changbi), and As Mom Knows (Moonji Publishing), as well as full-length novels Goodbye, Circus (Munhakdongne) and The Ginger (Changbi). The Hankook Ilbo Literary Award targets Korean fiction published between September of last year and August of this year, and the judges include writers Eun Hee-Kyoung, Jeon Sung-Tae, and Pyeon Hye-Young; literary critics Jung Hong-Su, Kang Dong-Ho, and Yang Kyeung-Un; and poet Shin Yonng-Mok.

 

 

Honoring poet Shin Dong-Yup and supporting literary figures: Shin Dong-Yup Literary Award

 

The Shin Dong-Yup Literary Award was jointly founded by poet Shin Dong-Yup’s family and Changbi to honor the literary spirit of Shin Dong-Yup (1930-1969), a representative participatory poet of the 1960s who wrote poems such as Husk and Be Gone, and to support talented literary figures. The Award judges literary achievements written in Korean in the last two years by writers with 10 years or less of publication experience or a comparable career. In August 2024, Changbi selected Kim Ki-Tae’s short story collection, The International for Two (Munhakdongne), for the 42nd Shin Dong-Yup Literary Award in the fiction category. The judges commented that the collection “makes us feel a sense of contemporaneity again through its extraordinary and affectionate view of ordinary individuals as well as its meticulous composition.”

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 74 – Go to the interview with writer Kim Ki-Tae

 

 

Discovering talented Korean writers: Munhakdongne Novel Award

 

Presented by Munhakdongne with the aim of discovering talented Korean writers, the Munhakdongne Novel Award has been responsible for discovering some of the key figures in Korean literature. Previous winners of the Munhakdongne Novel Award include Eun Hee-Kyoung’s A Bird’s Gift (Munhakdongne), Cheon Myeong-Kwan’s Whale (Munhakdongne), which was shortlisted for the UK’s International Booker Prize last year, Kim Un-Su’s The Cabinet (Munhakdongne), and Cho Nam-Joo’s When You Listen (Munhakdongne). The Award, now in its 29th year, selected Kim Hong’s full-length novel Price King!!! (Munhakdongne) as the winner. The judging panel of the Award commented, “The novel’s incredible immersive power and witty use of humor brought us back to being sheer, genuine readers, and we were all in agreement that it should be the winner.” Kim Hong began his career in 2017 through Dong-A Ilbo’s Spring Literary Contest. He wrote the short story collection, We Will Find You (Munhakdongne), and the full-length novels, Smoking Oreo (Jaum&Moeum) and Ung-ung (Minumsa).

 

 

Bringing a year of Korean literature to a close every fall: Kim Seung-Ok Literary Award

 

The Kim Seung-Ok Literary Award was established in 2013 to honor the literary and creative spirit of Kim Seung-Ok, a writer who reached the remarkable pinnacle of Korean contemporary fiction in the 1960s, in commemoration of his 50th year of writing. It has been organized by Munhakdongne with the support of Suncheon-si since 2019. A total of 165 fiction pieces published in 27 literary journals from July 2023 to June 2024 were eligible for the contest. Among them, the judging committee of the 2024 Kim Seung-Ok Literary Award selected Them by Jo Kyung-Ran. Jo Kyung-Ran debuted in Dong-A Ilbo’s Spring Literary Contest in 1996 with her short story French Optical, and has since won numerous prominent literary awards, such as the Munhakdongne Writer Award, Today’s Young Artist Award, Hyundae Munhak Award, Dong-In Literary Award, and Yi Sang Literary Award. In addition to Jo Kyung-Ran’s grand prize-winning work, Kang Tae-Sik’s Still Tonight, Ban Su-Yeon’s The Fragments, Shin Yong-Mok’s Shepherds’ Cooperative, Ahn Bo-Yoon’s Regular Meeting on That Day, Lee Seung-Eun’s The Pieces, and Cho Hae-Jin’s Dear Tomorrow’s Songi were selected as excellent works.

 

 

Contributing to the advancement of Korean literature: Lee Hyo-Seok Literary Award

 

The Lee Hyo-Seok Literary Award was established in 2000 in honor of the life and literary spirit of Gasan (可山) Lee Hyo-Seok (1907-1942), the author of When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom, who is considered one of the prime spirits of Korean modern and contemporary literature. The judging committee of the Lee Hyo-Seok Literary Award selected 16 preliminary entries by recommending 3-4 outstanding short stories published in literary magazines and webzines over the past year, which were then reviewed intensively for a month. The characteristics of the works examined by the 5 judges included the prominence of young writers in the 2000s, the universality of themes that cross eras, creative subjects, and writing style. Based on these criteria, Moon Ji-Hyeok’s Hurricane Night, Seo Jang-Won’s Little Pride, Sung Hae-Na’s Honmono, Son Bo-Mi’s Endless Night, Ahn Yoon’s Dam-dam, and Ye So-Yeon’s The Dog and the Revolution were selected to compete in the final round.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 75 – Go to the article about the Lee Hyo-Seok Memorial Hall

 

Son Bo-Mi’s work was selected as the grand prize winner of the 25th Lee Hyo-Seok Literary Award. The winning story, Endless Night, is a short story that describes the protagonist’s experiences and thoughts following a night when a cruising yacht rocked and turned over. The judges commented, “It has an undeniably compelling novelistic tension,” and added that it stood out for the way it “tenaciously traces a fractured, seemingly sinking truth in a dizzy world.” Son Bo-Mi has written the short story collections, A Lindy Hop for Them (Munhakdongne), and An Elegant Night and Cats (Moonji Publishing), and the full-length novels Dear Ralph Lauren (Munhakdongne), Small Neighborhood (Moonji Publishing), and Children of Disappeared Forest (Anonbooks), and has won numerous awards, including the Daesan Literary Award, the Yi Sang Literary Award, and grand prize in the Young Writer’s Award.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 58 – Go to the interview with writer Son Bo-Mi

 

 

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Written by Kim Sheen (Publishing critic)