Target
Im Sol-ah · Caring for Fruit Flies… 007
Author's Note | Don't Write Too Hard
Commentary | Rethinking Happy Endings (Park Seo-yang)

Kim Mela · Sunset… 051
Author's Note | If I Can Make You Smile
Commentary | (Useless) Gender and Reused Literature (Kim Bo-kyung)

Kim Byeong-un · What We Say While Waiting… 105
Author's Note | What's Becoming More Important
Commentary | More Sensitive Than Litmus (Im Jeong-gyun)

Kim Ji-yeon · At the park… 149
Author's Note | Fill in the blanks
Commentary | What Happened in a Public Place (by Oh Eun-kyo)

Kim Hye-jin, Mi-ae… 191
Author's Note | The Face of Hope
Commentary | Reciprocal Transaction (Seonwoo Eunsil)

Seo Su-jin · Gold Rush … 229
Author's Note | Grabbing with All My Might
Commentary | The Deferred End (Soyu Jeong)

Seoije · Inside and Outside the Skull… 263
Author's Note | To Live a New Life
Commentary | Between Birds and Humans (Jo-han)

2022 13th Young Writer Award
Judging process… 325
Review comments… 328

Lim Sol-ah's "Caring for Fruit Flies" is a story about the life of Lee Won-yeong, who took care of fruit flies in an experimental lab a long time ago, from the perspective of Lee Won-yeong's daughter, novelist Kwon Ji-yu. The author's beautiful will to not only reproduce the unfortunate reality as it is but also elevate the meaning of life to a "happy ending" stands out.
The story of mother and daughter Won-young Lee, who discovers the value of caring for even the smallest and most insignificant life, and Ji-yu Kwon, who completes the ending that Won-young Lee dreams of through a novel, was selected as the grand prize winner, receiving rave reviews such as “the writer’s masterpiece that depicts beyond misfortune and despair” (novelist Byeong-mo Koo).


Kim Mella's "Evening Glow" depicts the poignant story of a female couple, "Nunjeom" and "Meokjeom," who make a living by supporting each other in their difficult lives through the eyes of the narrator, "Momo," who personifies a dildo. This allows us to sense the unique texture of Kim Mella's queer-female narrative, while also exuding a subversive energy that turns on the male-centered narrative that has continued for a long time.


Kim Byeong-un's "What We Say When We Wait" tells the story of the narrator, a gay novelist, who met and interacted closely with an asexual, Ju-ho, at a human rights group's reading club, and his lover, In-ju, and vividly portrays the misunderstanding and hatred that can easily occur even among those who share a homogeneous minority identity, as well as the voice of reflection on such misunderstanding and hatred.


Kim Ji-yeon's "In the Park" exposes the misogyny prevalent in our society by expressing, in strong female language, how a public space called a "park," which is open to everyone equally, is transformed into a space of violent discrimination.


Kim Hye-jin's "Mi-ae" mercilessly delves into the cruel face of humanity and complex contradictions revealed in the class gap between those who do not have their own living space and those who do, using short sentences.


Seo Su-jin's "Gold Rush" symbolically portrays the weariness and devastation of a young couple living in a foreign land called Australia, but who have lost all feelings or expectations for each other, through the image of an abandoned mine.


Seo Yi-je's "Inside and Outside the Skull" is set in the near future where the bird population has increased rapidly. Through fragments of incidents and statements related to "birds," represented by magpies and chickens, it depicts the merciless killings and loss of humanity carried out under the pretext of culling through apocalyptic imagination and colorful formal experiments.

★

This year, literary critics Seonwoo Eunsil, So Yoojeong, Oh Eun-kyo, and Jo Daehan, who were in charge of the quarterly review section of the quarterly magazine Munhakdongne throughout 2021, have completed the first round of selections after long hours of hard work, selecting around thirty short and medium-length novels.
This selection process took almost a year, as the four people in charge of the quarterly review reviewed all the new short stories and selected the outstanding or controversial ones each season.
Here, literary critics Kim Bo-kyung, Park Seo-yang, and Lim Jeong-gyun joined in the second round of judging, and a total of 21 works were selected for the final round.

The main characters were Gu Byeong-mo, Kwon Hee-chul, Son Bo-mi, Eun Hee-kyung, and Lim Cheol-woo.
Before the full-scale discussion, the judges decided to vote for the five works they considered the best out of the twenty-one and then confirm the results.
As a result of the final voting, "Caring for Fruit Flies" by Im Sol-a, who was nominated for the Young Writer's Award for the first time this year, won the grand prize.
The somewhat grotesque yet poignant setting of a mother's special attachment to a fruit fly, combined with the story of a daughter struggling with how to end a novel about her ailing mother, seems to have captured the judges' hearts a little more in the end, as this novel answers the questions of what life is and what novel writing is in a simple yet earnest, careful yet bold way.
I would like to congratulate and thank all seven young writers who received awards, including author Im Sol-a.
_In the 'review process'

★

Im Sol-ah, "Caring for Fruit Flies" The moment when reality and fiction separate, and at the same time, reality and fiction merge.
I felt that the gap between the prayer that the last sentence really happened and the certainty that it absolutely never happened was what took this novel to another level.
(…) This novel has done almost everything that can be done with sentence-narrative to reveal that gap.
_Son Bo-mi (novelist)

Wonyoung opened the box.
I took out a novel collection.
I sat down at the desk.
I turned on the stand and took out a magnifying glass from the desk drawer.
I cleaned the egg with a glasses cleaner and used a magnifying glass.
I pulled my face back to get the focus.
I checked the pages listed in the table of contents.
I was flipping through the book and stopped at page 7.
In Ji Yu's novel, Won-yeong looked into a fruit fly.
The fruit flies were beautifully expressed.
In this novel, Won-young liked the ending the most.
I thought it was all thanks to fruit flies and the lab. (『Ritter』 August/September 2021 issue (『Saying It's Nothing』, Munhak-kwa-Jiseongsa, 2021))

■ He began his career by winning the Joongang New Writer’s Award in 2013 and the Munhakdongne University Novel Award in 2015.
There are the short story collections 『Snow, People, and Snowmen』 『Saying It's Nothing』, the full-length novel 『The Best Life』, and the poetry collections 『Strange Weather and Good People』 and 『Get Packing』.
Won the Shin Dong-yup Literary Award and the Munji Literary Award.

Kim Mela, "Sunset" The warm yet anxious love nest of two women who overcome the humiliation of a rough and violent world is depicted with a rather light touch, so the overall tone maintains balance without falling into a swamp of darkness. Honestly, I never imagined that I would love a novel in which a dildo is a kind of protagonist and even a narrator who is intoxicated with self-indulgence this much.
_Gu Byeong-mo (novelist)

The two women who gave each other nicknames were very affectionate when they spoke on the phone.
I love you or I miss you
We could speak out loud, enter each other's nicknames in the phone book, and put hearts next to them.
As the two women felt the joy of different names, they transformed the linguistic constraints surrounding them into play, and they gradually expanded their own secret language. (Literature and Society, Fall 2021)

■ He began his literary career by winning the 『Consonant and Vowel』 New Writer’s Award in 2014.
There is a collection of short stories titled “At Least Twice.”
Won the Munji Literary Award and the Young Writer Award in 2021.

Kim Byeong-un, "What We Say When We Wait" is a thoughtful novel with just the right amount of warmth.
There is a sense of balance and naive goodwill in the way one looks at all others, those close to oneself, those far away, and those even further away.
It has the power to calmly persuade by asking sharp and urgent questions in a disarming manner.
Eun Hee-kyung (novelist)

Every time I write about that day, I inevitably check my limitations and then erase them.
Some days I erase it because I think I was too crude and blurred us out. Other days I erase it because I think I was too hasty and smoothed us out. Other days I erase it because I feel like everything I wrote is just a lame excuse.
And if you keep erasing like that, you will inevitably come across some lines.
Those lines that can never be erased, or rather, even if you erase them all, you end up having to write them again.
Even through all the failures I've written, Inju always looks at me and says,
I would like to use it.
I'd love to write about us. (Litter, February/March 2021)

■ He began his career by winning the 『Writer’s World』 New Writer Award in 2014.
There is a full-length novel, “The Filmography of Actor Gong Sang-pyo Known Only to Those Who Know Him,” and a collection of essays, “Anyway, Bangkok.”

Kim Ji-yeon, "In the Park" It was quite surprising to me, as I was following the sophisticated structure of this novel, to experience how the last two sentences very quickly break away from conventional usage.
(…) The structure of this novel, in which the characters share in each other’s confusion, gradually agree on new expressions, and eventually learn them and take on new meanings, felt more lovable than the child Seo-young in the novel.
Kwon Hee-cheol (literary critic)

Things didn't always go as planned, but I enjoyed life.
I love it so much that I want to overcome all the humiliations I've suffered at any cost.
It's good to live like that.
It's especially nice to pet live, dog-like creatures. (Hwanghae Culture, Spring 2021)

■ He began his career by winning the Munhakdongne New Writer’s Award in 2018.
There is a collection of short stories titled “Sounds Without a Heart.”
Won the Young Writer Award in 2021.

Kim Hye-jin, "Mi-ae": The true face of sympathy and self-satisfaction hidden behind culture and kindness.
A door that shows a gesture of hospitality, but then closes mercilessly at some point.
The ending of the novel, which seemed to be a familiar narrative about the false consciousness of the middle class, is shaken by a completely unexpected twist.
_Im Cheol-woo (novelist)

Sometimes it was so tragic that even Mi-ae, who didn't know the situation well, felt a sense of solemnity.
There were times when such sights were surprising and somewhat touching, but what Mi-ae saw more and more clearly was their desire to become better people than they were now.
They had a desire to become better people, they had the confidence that they would become better people, and they had the luxury of maintaining that confidence.
So, Mi-ae knew that that was the real reason she was invited to that gathering.
(Hwanghae Culture, Spring 2021)

■ He began his literary career through the Dong-A Ilbo New Year’s Literary Contest in 2012.
There are the short story collections 『Fish』 and 『A Life Called You』, the novels 『Jungang Station』, 『About My Daughter』, and 『Nine Times』, and the short story 『Fire and My Autobiography』.
He won the Joongang Long-form Literary Award, the Shin Dong-yup Literary Award, the Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award Special Award, the Daesan Literary Award, and the 2021 Young Writer Award.

Seo Su-jin, "Gold Rush" well portrays the despair and helplessness of a young couple whose wrists are tied together in the thorny handcuffs of life.
(…) Even though the statute of limitations has passed, only the fragments of love and hysterical hope that still remain, and the irreparable wounds they left behind, are the only testament to their lives.
I felt the elegance of classical tragedy in their return to “a world that was all red.”
Eun Hee-kyung (novelist)

Jinwoo and Seoin never had a shining moment.
A shining moment.
Jinwoo knew they had always been waiting for it.
And they knew it would never come to them.
Red sunlight filled the car.
Jinwoo looked at a world filled with red. (『Modern Literature』 January 2021 issue) ■ He began his literary career in 2020 by winning the Hankyoreh Literary Award for 『Korean Teacher』.

Seo Yije, "Inside and Outside the Skull" is a powerful and ambitious experimental work.
The bold and colorful narrative style, subject matter, and message that breaks the conventional novel format also provide a fresh shock.
(…) A scene of mass animal slaughter carried out in the name of culling harmful animals.
It is the apocalyptic landscape of humanity's madness, which is now driving nature and all life on Earth to death.
_Im Cheol-woo (novelist)

Unable to be written in human language.
Subject, predicate.
Cannot be used.
Subject, object, predicate.
Cannot be used.
Chickens don't talk like humans.
Adjective, subject, predicate.
Not thinking like a human.
Subject, object, adverb, predicate.
They cannot write because they think and feel differently from humans. (『Consonant and Vowel』 Summer 2021)

■ He began his literary career by winning the Literature and Society New Writer Award in 2018.
There is a collection of short stories titled “Towards 0%.”
Today's Writer Award, 2021 Young Writer Award.
I am currently working as a km/s engineer.