Target_ Kim Mela Lee Eung Lee Eung … 007
Author's Note | The Path a Novel Takes
Commentary | The Evolution of Jeon Seung-min's Gestures

Gong Hyun-jin: The world is going to end anyway... 073
Author's Note | A World That Opens Suddenly and Closes Preoccupiedly
Commentary | So, I'm going to go as far as I can.

Kim Ki-tae's Universal Education... 111
Author's Note | General Notes
Commentary | Park Seo-yang's Such Sweet Melancholy

Kim Nam-sook, Paju… 151
Author's Note | That Person
Commentary | Choi Da-young's Compensation Claim for Vanity

Kim Ji-yeon's companion debt... 201
Author's Note | Unchilgisam
Commentary | Jeon Cheong-rim: A Genius Whose Ruined Life

Seong Hae-na Honmono… 247
Author's Note | Que sera, sera
Commentary | Seonghyeon, those who rebel are absurd, and their falsehood is true.

Jeon Ji-young's Uncanny Valley… 295
Author's Note | Barely Able to Say
Commentary | Kim Geon-hyeong's Gaze and Shame, Power and Beauty

2024 15th Young Writer's Award
Judging process… 339
Review comments… 342

Kim Mela's "Lee Eung Lee Eung" is set in an era where machines that relieve sexual desire have been invented, and follows the emotional line of a character who feels empty despite being able to conveniently satisfy his desires without interacting with others.
By delicately expressing the protagonist, 'I', who has lost his family, and his deep longing for physical contact with the missing being, the film beautifully demonstrates that sexuality is comprised of a diverse emotional spectrum.
It was selected as the grand prize winner, receiving rave reviews such as, “A novel that still sparkles with Kim Mela’s ideas and inventions, but also stirs the emotions and senses with feelings of longing and loss more than any other work to date” (judge’s comment, novelist Choi Eun-mi).


Gong Hyun-jin's "The World is Going to End Anyway" is a "lovely" and "serious" (judge's comment) story about the main characters 'Joo-ho' and 'Hee-joo', who are always last in the swimming center's training class, and who, without caring about what the world thinks, breathe at their own pace and stand firm together.
(Literary critic Kim Geon-hyeong) This work makes us think about how we can find hope in a world that is falling apart.


Kim Ki-tae's "Universal Culture" is a controversial work that captures the moment when a crack appears in the inner peace of "Kwak," a Korean language teacher in charge of a classics reading class, after receiving a complaint from a parent one day. The hypocrisy of the intellectual narrator, which is embedded in the sophisticated and dense sentences, creates a great irony.


Kim Nam-sook's "Paju" is a masterpiece that questions the structure of violence and expands the dynamics of human relationships by overlapping the revenge narrative of Hyun-cheol, the junior soldier who was bullied by Jeong-ho, the boyfriend of the narrator, with the self-loathing experienced by the narrator, a private academy teacher.


Kim Ji-yeon's "Bed Debt" poignantly portrays the tragedy of capitalist society, where even in a loving relationship, self-interest and debt inevitably arise, and the suffering of the younger generation, the weaker generation within that structure, through the story of "Jeong-hyeon," who treats the 160 million won debt incurred while living with her ex-lover as "bed debt" as if they were family.


Seong Hae-na's "Honmono" is an impressive action film about the battle of wits between Munsu, a thirty-year veteran shaman who has lost his so-called "shinpal" (spirituality) after the sudden departure of the old woman god he had been worshipping, and Shin Ae-gi, who moves into the house across from him. It is a powerful novel that realistically depicts the unique world of shamanistic culture and questions the faith, distrust, and sincerity of humans who stand before an invisible god.


Jeon Ji-young's "Uncanny Valley" is a gothic thriller about a night taxi driver who learns that a passenger she once drove was poisoned with hydrochloric acid.
By setting the story in a closed village inhabited primarily by the wealthy, this is an ambitious story that portrays the human anxiety and vulnerability that exists between rich and poor, beauty and ugliness, normality and abnormality.

★

The Young Writer's Award is awarded to short stories published within the past year by writers who have been active for less than ten years.
Critics Park Seo-yang, Lee So, Lim Jeong-gyun, and Jeon Seung-min, who were in charge of the quarterly review corner of the quarterly magazine Munhakdongne, diligently and meticulously reviewed short and medium-length novels published in 2023. Based on this work, critics Seong Hyeon-ah, Jeon Cheong-rim, and Choi Da-young added their own recommendations and conducted a joint review, resulting in a total of twenty works being selected for the final round.
Critics Kim Geon-hyeong and Hwang Jong-yeon, and novelists Kim In-sook, Bae Myeong-hun, and Choi Eun-mi were appointed as the final judging committee members, and the final judging was held on January 26, 2024.

Kim Mela's "Lee Eung Lee Eung" was selected as the grand prize winner, receiving widespread support for its bold imagination about sex and its exploration of 'companionship' and 'love'.
Kim Ji-yeon's "Debt for Companions" and Gong Hyeon-jin's "The World Will End Anyway" drew attention for vividly depicting the reality and struggles of the younger generation, while Kim Ki-tae's "Universal Culture" and Seong Hae-na's "Honmono" were noted for their witty prose while capturing hypocrisy and hypocrisy in detail.
Kim Nam-sook's "Paju" and Jeon Ji-young's "Uncanny Valley" stand out for their ability to effectively visualize themes of human violence and anxiety through the relationships between characters and space.

After selecting the seven winners, I was also pleased to see that there were relatively many new writers receiving the Young Writer Award for the first time.
Their next work is even more anticipated.
I am delighted to be able to introduce readers to the work of these talented young writers.
I have no doubt that this collection of Young Writer's Award winners will provide readers with an enjoyable reading experience.
_From the 'Review Process'

★

Kim Mela, "Eung Eung" asks whether sexual attraction and emotional attraction can be separated, and whether the desire to touch can be separated from sexual pleasure, and leaves questions about the loss of an irreplaceable companion and the life that follows.
(…) It was a novel that still sparkled with Kim Mela’s ideas and inventions, but shook the emotions and senses with the emotions of longing, love, and loss more than any other work so far.
_Choi Eun-mi (novelist)

“I wish there was a different greeting.
For example, you might touch cheeks, hug, or have someone you like pick you up.
Because I'm so happy.
When a dog is happy and satisfied, it pees.
Of course, humans wear panties.
For example, if you hug someone with a happy heart and spin around… ” (Munjang Webzine, May 2023)

· He began his literary career by winning the 2014 『Consonant and Vowel』 New Writer’s Award.
There are the short story collections 『At Least Twice』 and 『Dream of Me』, the full-length novel 『High Sense of the Absent Layer』, and the prose collection 『Melting Heart』.
He won the Munji Literary Award, the Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award, and the Young Writer Award in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Gong Hyun-jin, "The World is Going to End Anyway" The story of them meeting by chance as swim center students and becoming friends is set against the backdrop of a premonition of the Earth's destruction, but has an overall bright tone.
It ultimately moves in the direction of warmly affirming the desire of a healthy person to live even in the face of any catastrophe.
Hwang Jong-yeon (literary critic)

Joo-ho found it strange that he was overcome with a strong urge to live.
Isn't that impulse paired with the impulse toward death?
If life, if being alive, were natural, we would not be able to feel the urge to live.
But lately, Joo-ho has been suffering from a desperate urge to live, even without any urge or longing for death.
I want to live.
I want to live more. (『Axt』 March/April 2023 issue)

· Gong Hyeon-jin began her literary career in 2023 when her short story "Green" won the Dong-A Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest.

Kim Ki-tae, "Universal Culture" depicts a portrait of an intellectual full of hypocrisy.
How elaborate is this hypocrisy.
How elaborate is the novel?
It is full, without a single breath or word out of place.
(…) This perfect hypocrisy and narrative can be read as a kind of black comedy in that it will soon collapse because of its perfection.
_Kim In-sook (novelist)

It was a clear violation of the right to education.
Students could ignore the class, but no one could tell them what to teach or not to teach.
Isn't this petition an attempt to destroy my inviolable rights?
Moreover, the student showed interest in the difficult 『Das Kapital』. Isn't there an intellectual curiosity there that must be protected and encouraged?
When I thought of it as a complaint that threatened not only my own rights but also the rights of students and even the freedom of thought, I could feel more justified in my rebellion.
It seemed as if the test I knew I would face at least once in my life, a test I could not defeat but would destroy, had taken a long journey and appeared before me. (Creation and Criticism, Fall 2023)

· He began his literary career in 2022 when his short story "Heavy and High" was selected for the Dong-A Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest.

Kim Nam-sook, "Paju" There are times when we cannot take responsibility for irreversible moments.
The conclusion that there is no way to escape from that time and that there is no other answer than to live with it for the rest of one's life is cold and heavy.
The novel's petty revenge drama is filled with an intense sense of guilt.
Kim Geon-hyeong (literary critic)

I hate those eyes that seem to judge me.
Every time I look into those eyes, I feel like I'm being evaluated.
I feel like I'm going to get caught someday.
What a terrible person I am, what a terrible heart I have.
What did they say… …
As I said that, my face somehow became hot.
Hyuncheol spoke only after a long time.
I think it's more like fear than hate.
But... ...if you're too scared, you'll start to hate it. (『Epic』 January/February/March 2023 issue)

· He began his career by winning the Munhakdongne New Writer's Award in 2015.
There is a collection of short stories titled “Eisen” and a collection of essays titled “Living in a Quiet Hell.”

Kim Ji-yeon's "Banryeo Debt" is a work that ponders and answers the next step in the pattern of "a story of two women living in the same space."
What comes after the bitter memories of love and solidarity? This novel's answer is a realistic voice that argues, "Money, money, money," but this voice is actually lighthearted and comical.
The position of the character who reached the end and became plus or minus zero was read as evolution rather than the origin.
_Bae Myung-hoon (novelist)

Debt was something that Jeong-Hyeon had to take good care of and look after until the moment of his death.
Debt will also not leave Jeong-hyeon's side for the next several years, and will continue to watch with his eyes wide open, more than anyone else, whether Jeong-hyeon is alive or dead.
Debt was Jeong-hyeon's companion. (Literature and Society, Summer 2023)

· He began his career by winning the Munhakdongne New Writer's Award in 2018.
There is the short story collection 『Sounds Without Heart』, the novel 『Little Red Riding Hood』, and the novella 『The Smell of the Beginning』.
He won the Kim Man-jung Literary Award for New Writers in 2021 and the Young Writer Award in 2022.

Seong Hae-na, "Honmono" is so intense that there is no time to be bored.
(…) The uniqueness of the subject matter of the world of shamanism is what first catches the eye, but it is not only because of that.
A new and unfamiliar stage makes familiar questions suddenly vivid.
What is real?
To answer this question, we must cross generations, genders, and even spirits and genitals.
_Kim In-sook (novelist)

Under the scorching sun, where even the clouds have disappeared, while the musicians and the performers are growing increasingly exhausted, I am the only one whose spirits remain undiminished.
He may be covered in blood and look ugly, but his vision is clear and he even has a smile on his face.
My body feels light and refreshed, as if I've reached a divine presence.
The faster the beat, the more excited I become.
Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha… …
Has there ever been a moment like this in Park Soo's thirty-year life?
It is no longer important for whom one sacrifices one's life and prays for salvation.
Fame, youth, envy, strife, even the real and the fake.
It gets lighter.
As if free from everything.
Now it really seems fake. (『Consonant and Vowel』 Fall 2023)

· He began his literary career through the 2019 Dong-A Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest.
There is a collection of short stories titled ‘When You Walk Through the Light, There is Light’ and a full-length novel titled ‘The Summer We Left Behind’.

Jeon Ji-young, "Uncanny Valley" I somehow felt like I wanted to experience more of the elusive malice that could distort the structures of deficiency and longing, strength and weakness, beauty and destruction established in this novel.
Regardless of whether or not I had an emotional connection with her novels, Jeon Ji-young was the author who made me really curious about her next novel.
_Choi Eun-mi (novelist)

You were simply amazed by the atmosphere of Cheonghan-dong, the unimaginably opulent lifestyle, and the ability to have anything you wanted.
“What do you do in that house?”
In response to my question, you turned to me and sat down, holding the paper cup in both hands.
He straightened his back, brought his legs together, and looked straight into my eyes.
“Like this, I’m sitting on the living room sofa.” (Creation and Criticism, Fall 2023)

· He began his literary career in 2023 when his short story "Rat" was selected for the Chosun Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest, and his short story "The Rain That Hit the Railing Rushed Into the House" was selected for the Hankook Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest.