VOL.81/2025.04

 

How New Writers Are Discovered in Korea:
Shinchunmunye, Literary Awards, and Newly Emerging Pathways

 

2025.03.10

 

At the award ceremony of shinchunmunye (annual spring literary contest), one of Korea’s representative systems for recognizing new writers, there is always a “congratulatory speech” delivered by the judges (mostly novelists, sometimes literary critics) to the winners. As a former literary reporter for a newspaper and then head of the Department of Culture, I have observed that every year, no matter who the judges are, there is always a certain message to the winners. Although you never can tell the future, I’m sure the same will also be true for next year’s shinchunmunye. The specific words vary by judge, but if I were to make it up, it would go something like this (which, of course, doesn’t even come close to the beautiful and moving words of the judges).

 

 

So, this is what it goes like - it is a poignant story from their own experience, whether it is an elderly writer in their 70s or a mid-career writer in their 40s or 50s. Nowadays, thanks to the development of technology, it is possible to become a writer in Korea through self-publishing, writing blogs, webzines, and even Social Media. However, just writing a novel or publishing a book doesn’t make you a real writer. You need to be able to meet readers through consistent works, or be recognized for your creations even if they are not read by readers. Or perhaps you will be recognized only after your death. So, the road ahead is both long and challenging. The world of writing is not a “God’s workplace” where once you enter, you are guaranteed a job for life. Anyone might be able to become a writer, but only a few make it to the center of attention as the main character.

 

Shinchunmunye vs. Awards for new writers by literary publishers

 

For writers in Korea, the two main ways to make their debut, and for publishers to discover talented writers, are shinchunmunye, run by newspapers, and literary awards, organized by publishers. Aside from popular novels and web novels, more than 90% of the major writers in Korean literature come from these channels. Many of them also receive literary awards after being selected by shinchunmunye. In terms of the balance of power, shinchunmunye used to be so powerful that most of Korea’s leading writers made their debut through it until the 1990s, but its influence began to wane in the 2000s, and now literary publishers’ literary awards have become the most dominant source.
The shinchunmunye (新春文藝) is literally a literary contest to celebrate the new spring. It began in the 1910s and has been going on for over 100 years. Every year, newspapers call for manuscripts around December 10-15, then quickly review them and announce the winners on January 1. In 2025, more than 30 newspapers participated in the shinchunmunye, including not only daily newspapers that cover the entire country, but also regional and specialized newspapers.
The influence of shinchunmunye was immense until the 1990s. From Hwang Seok-Young, who made his debut in Chosun Ilbo’s shinchunmunye in 1970 with his short story The Top, to Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang, whose short story Red Anchor won Seoul Shinmun’s shinchunmunye in 1997, most major writers came through shinchunmunye. When the winners were published in the newspapers on January 1, the literary editors of each publishing house would gather the newspapers, browse through the winners, and identify the outstanding writers among the year’s winners. Inevitably, new writers who caught the editors’ attention would receive the most requests. This is still the case today. The literary editors of publishing houses read the shinchunmunye winners, and the publishers start pitching. However, since the 2000s, its influence has been rapidly declining.
This is partly due to the declining status of newspapers as media in Korean society as a whole, but it is also due to the fact that shinchunmunye has not changed and has repeated the same format for decades. For newspapers, shinchunmunye is just one of the many events they organize. It is also limited in that it does not lead to follow-up requests for writers to write for the newspaper. In addition, the generation of judges hasn’t changed in a while, as the writers are getting younger and the newspapers want “top senior” judges with weighty authority. Also, with the deadline around December 15, hundreds and sometimes close to 1,000 entries have to be judged and presented in a short period of time, around 10 days, making it more of an “event” in many ways.
However, while the authority of shinchunmunye has shrunk, the number of applicants is increasing every year. This is because more and more people want to write, while the barrier for shinchunmunye has lowered. About 30 newspapers nationwide hold shinchunmunye around the same time of year. The number of writers making their debut through it has increased so much that winning the shinchunmunye is no longer seen as the beginning of a writing career, but rather as a gateway. It’s like going from complete obscurity to being a viable candidate for a publisher. In recent years, the number of shinchunmunye winners receiving offers from major publishers has dwindled to a handful.
Nevertheless, for any aspiring writer, the shinchunmunye is still a fundamental element when making a debut. In fact, though it has since lost some of its stature, some of the most important writers at the center of Korean literature, such as Kim Keum-Hee, Hwang Jung-Eun, and Kim Ki-Tae, gained their start in the 2000s through shinchunmunye.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 29 – Go to the interview with writer Kim Keum-Hee

 

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

 

The literary awards from publishing houses have taken over the vacant space left by the decline in the status of the shinchunmunye. Korea’s literary publishing revolves around the literary journals of major literary publishers. Including the quarterlies published by the so-called big three Korean literary publishers, such as Changbi Publishers’ The Quarterly Changbi, Munhakdongne Publishing’s The Quarterly Munhakdongne, and Moonji Publishing’s The Quarterly Literature & Society, literary magazines (quarterly or monthly), such as Minumsa Publishing’s bimonthly Littor, which features an anthology of world literature and young writers series, EunHaeng NaMu Publishing’s Axt, which focuses on Korean literature, and Hyundae Munhak, a monthly magazine with a 70-year tradition, solicit short stories from writers, and writers compile short stories published in various literary magazines into a short story collection. In the case of full-length novels, while some authors write and publish a full-length novel from start to finish, most authors serialize their stories in four separate issues of a literary magazine and then polish the entire work to be published by the magazine’s publisher. This way, publishers can discover writers and publish their work strategically, and writers can write in a stable environment.

 

 

Literary publishers create a variety of awards to find writers. Contests with cash prizes are a great way to attract aspiring writers, and they have a strong impact on readers because of the idea that the best work has been judged and selected from a pool of entries. Once the prize itself develops popularity and authority, it can garner a fixed number of readers each year. Therefore, publishers create awards for new writers to find new writers, and hold contests for full-length literary works without separating new and existing writers. Some publishers also give their own branded literary awards to select the best works among those already published. They can select good works that have not been published by their own publishing house, but have been published by other publishers or literary magazines, and create a link with good writers. An example of this is the Young Writer’s Award that Munhakdongne Publishing has been running since 2010. It selects the best works from the already published short and mid-length stories, and then releases a book titled Young Writer’s Award Winners Collection with seven stories including them. It’s a bestseller as soon as it comes out.
One of the most popular literary awards in Korea is the Yi Sang Literary Award, named after the iconic Korean poet Yi Sang (1910-1937), which also selects the best works from the short stories published each year and publishes the Yi Sang Literary Award Winners Compilation, containing the winners and nominees. Although its popularity has declined recently, this book is still very popular. As such, publishers use the awards to discover good writers and establish good relationships with talented writers to continue publishing books.

 

 

The third path: self-publishing

 

Literary awards of literary publishers and shinchunmunye are the two pillars of discovering writers, but as the publishing landscape changes, new pathways are emerging. Dallergut Dream Department Store (Sam & Parkers), published in 2020, shocked Korean publishing in many ways. The author, a former employee of Samsung Electronics, published her first novel, Dallergut Dream Department Store, without any previous experience, and it became an overnight bestseller. She initially published the e-book through crowdfunding, and then decided to release it in paperback at the request of her readers. The book has sold more than 2 million copies to date. This is a remarkable result in a shrinking publishing market, where even the most popular authors struggle to sell 500 thousand copies.

 

 

Recently, the growing popularity of web novels has opened up another avenue for anyone to become a writer. All you have to do is publish your work on a web novel platform. You can directly interact with readers without the need to work with editors at publishing houses. Also, as Korean literature is expanding its influence in the global literary market, some authors are recognized and popularized overseas first. This case can be called “rediscovery” rather than “discovery.” Take Bora Chung, for example. It’s hard to garner an audience beyond enthusiasts because Korea has traditionally had a narrow market for genre fiction, including SF. While she made her debut through various literary awards, she was rediscovered as a significant writer as she gained popularity overseas. Although she was famous in the SF world when her novel, The Head, won the Yonsei Cultural Award in 1998, and The Fox won the Excellence in Mobile Category at the 3rd Digital Literature Award in 2008, she became well-known to Korean fiction readers when she was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022.

 

* K-Book Trends Vol. 47 – Go to the interview with writer Bora Chung

 

Various platforms are the springboard for Korean literature

 

The diversification of the system for discovering new writers in Korea, coupled with changes in Korean literary publishing, is reshaping the landscape of Korean literature. Korean literature has traditionally been centered on pure literature. While any language or country appreciates authentic, traditional literature with depth, this tendency was stronger in Korea. While there is no clear distinction between literary and popular literature, there has been little room for popular and genre fiction, such as SF, fantasy, and romance, to flourish. Even if an author gained popularity in these fields, they were not treated as significant authors within the literary world. Korean pure literature values thematic consciousness and writing style over strong “stories,” which are relatively dominant in popular genres. In terms of the system, literary publishers, the critics who worked for their literary magazines, and the major novelists they recognized formed the core of the literary world as an inner circle.
However, it wasn’t until the mid-2010s that they began to be criticized for being “‘the literary elite’.” At the same time, the aforementioned pathways to becoming a writer exploded, producing a wide variety of writers. Additionally, avid readers of SF, mysteries, thrillers, and other genres came to the forefront, and the webtoon and webcomic genres boomed. The commercial potential of movie and TV adaptations has also become too great to ignore. Overall, the importance of the original story, the story that can be one-source multi-use, has increased.
These changes are, in turn, making Korean literature both more diverse and enriching. This is because works ranging from the most popular to the most profound are being published under the umbrella of Korean literature. Of course, just as new platforms like Social Media, YouTube, and other platforms are threatening legacy media and generating fake news, new popular readings can threaten more profound and high-literary fiction. There is already a trend in the Korean reading market toward thinner, easier stories. This is also a global trend in the age of visual Social Media. However, elements of popular fiction can also provide good insights into pure literature. For example, a strong story combined with the rich tradition of Korean literature can lead to some surprisingly great works. In Korean society, novels (novelists) have always been more than just stories (storytellers); they have also long represented great intelligence, ideologies, philosophies, and ethics. I believe in the deep and long tradition of Korean literature. In the new era, Korean literature will leap to new heights.

 

 

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Written by Choi Hyun-Mee (Editorial writer at Munhwa Daily Newspaper)