Target

Kim Geum-hee We came from pepperoni
Author's Note | I'm Not a Good Person
Review | The Embryology of Love (Kim Hwa-young)

Excellence Award

Eunhee Kyung, why and where are we for how long?
Author's Note | Doubt in Praise of Doubt
Review | The People We Know, The Time We Know (Ha Seong-ran)

Kwon Yeo-seon, Silver, Ten Million Sa
Author's Note | This One Time
Review | Precarious Life and the Power of Companionship (Ryu Bo-seon)

Jeonghan, the sea, the kangaroo, and the night of paradise
Author's Note | Blowing Breath
Review | Finally, Without Pain or Regret (Yoon Dae-nyeong)

Eunmi Choi When I was me
Author's Note | Notes
Review | While Writing, Writing, Reading (Baek Ji-eun)

Standard Young Bison
Author's Note | The picture of the buffalo I drew
Review | That Thing Rushing Towards Me (Yoon Sung-hee)

2020 Kim Seung-ok Literary Award
-Purpose of the Kim Seung-ok Literary Award
-Review process and review comments

"A position that could never be reached without the 'novel' genre."
The most reliable journey into the depths of Korean literature
2020 Kim Seung-ok Literary Award Winners Collection

The Kim Seung-ok Literary Award is the quintessence of Korean literature, confidently recommended by Munhakdongne, and is a place to present the final results based on the name of Kim Seung-ok, who represents Korean short story literature.
The best short stories published by authors who have made their literary debut over the past year are selected and awarded the Grand Prize to one work and Excellence Awards to six works.
The grand prize of 50 million won (total prize money of 80 million won) is the largest prize awarded to a short story in Korea and is a loving encouragement to the efforts of writers who push the boundaries of short story aesthetics.
This year, 147 short stories published by 100 writers in 25 literary magazines, including major local literary magazines, webzines, and independent literary magazines, from July 2019 to June 2020, were subject to review.
Just as last year, when blind judging was a hot topic, this year, we took a fresh look at contemporary Korean literature from a new perspective by reading the deep and rich profiles of various writers who have continued their individual work without prejudice.

The winners of the 2020 Kim Seung-ok Literary Award are Kim Geum-hee, Eun Hee-kyung, Kwon Yeo-seon, Hwang Jeong-eun, Jeong Han-ah, Choi Eun-mi, and Ki Joon-yeong.
Among those who have achieved literary achievements that no one can doubt and have become the backbone of Korean literature, the grand prize was given to author Kim Geum-hee, who was judged to be “a position that could never be reached without the ‘novel’ genre” (Shin Su-jeong).
Along with the award-winning author Kim Geum-hee, authors Kwon Yeo-seon, Hwang Jeong-eun, and Choi Eun-mi have once again been recognized with the Kim Seung-ok Literary Award, demonstrating their experience.
The Kim Seung-ok Literary Award has, year after year, demonstrated its potential as a venue for fully recording the profound yet sharp achievements of Korean literature.
For readers curious about the current state of Korean literature, this book will serve as a guide on a journey that explores the deepest and highest reaches of Korean literature.

The grand prize winner, Kim Geum-hee's "We Came from Pepperoni," is a "political work that convinces us that romance novels are still possible in this dry and harsh world" (Kim Hwa-young). It is a coming-of-age story that recalls a time when she believed she "fell in love" with "Gi-o-seong," who had been active in a civic group but then turned into a "conservative pervert" and suddenly disappeared.
It is a “beautiful novel itself” (Kim Hwa-young), “testifying and confirming the passion, love, frustration, and growth through that frustration of a generation,” looking back on certain times that everyone has long lingered in their hearts with self-reproach, through Kim Geum-hee’s delicate gaze.
This novel, which coexists with the fleeting flash of life unfolding into eternity and the fleeting moment of time, received praise as “an old future” (Shin Su-jeong) in which “the memories of a generation and a time are restored in such a microscopic and reflective way.”

Eun Hee-kyung's "Why We Are Where, How Long, and For How Long" follows Seung-ah, whose transition to a full-time job has been thwarted, as she travels to New York to visit Min-young, who is living a life that anyone would envy. However, the conflict that arises as she encounters a life that is completely different from the life she saw on Min-young's Instagram is resolved from both of their perspectives.
Kwon Yeo-seon's "Silver Family" is a mother-daughter epic about Ban-hee, who had to leave home and leave her daughter behind, and her daughter Chae-woon, who go on a one-night, two-day trip and reveal to each other the psychological difficulties and hardships that mother and daughter experience due to their parents' divorce, and show an example of how they can overcome them together.
Jeong Han-ah's "The Sea, the Kangaroo, and the Night of Paradise" is a novel about a woman who, unable to continue her unstable university lecturer position, faces the rift between her unfortunate marriage and her relationship with her daughter, Si-won, whom she cannot say is a victim, and seeks the possibility of a new union.
Eunmi Choi's "When I Was Me" is a novel that describes the dual sense of isolation felt by "me" as a writer and "me" as a member of a family amidst the events that unfolded due to the writings of novelist "Jeong Yoo," and that finds the strength to escape the "tunnel" despite the persistent sense of isolation.
According to novelist Yoon Seong-hee, winner of last year's Kim Seung-ok Literary Award, Gi-jun Young's "The Wild Ox" is a "beautiful short story" that "transcends definition." It overlaps the stories of two mothers and daughters from the perspective of a girl, calmly following the process of empathy as the girl thinks about and takes to heart the people who have heartbreaking stories.

From July 2019 to June 2020, among the short stories published, those that met the criteria were selected by literary critics Ryu Bo-seon, Baek Ji-eun, and Shin Su-jeong, and novelists Yoon Dae-nyeong, Yoon Seong-hee, and Ha Seong-ran. After taking turns in conducting the preliminary review, each recommended 3-4 works. Then, chair of the judging committee, Kim Hwa-young, joined in and conducted the final review of a total of 19 preliminary recommended works.
And finally, 7 works were selected.
Naturally, this process was bound to be a difficult one, with the best works of the time being chosen.
Our choices may not be the best.
However, we remain steadfast in our belief that these seven works most sharply and profoundly represent the position our novels have taken over the past year.
_In 'Review Process and Review Comments'

Kim Geum-hee, "We Came from Pepperoni"

This novel could be said to be an attempt to answer one question.
I, you, and we 'where did you come from?' (...) Perhaps it is this beautiful novel itself that testifies and confirms the passion, love, frustration, and growth through that frustration of a generation by answering the question "Where did you come from?" not with "I" but with the first-person plural "We come from Pepperoni" in its title.
Kim Hwa-young (French literature scholar and literary critic)

I've said it many times over the years, but in reality, it's never really been that good.
I went through that time feeling like crying because I didn't know where I came from and where I was going.
For us, being able to talk about frustration as frustration and no longer deny it was growth.
(Creation and Criticism, Summer 2020)

Eun Hee-kyung, "Where Are We, Why, and For How Long?"

What Eun Hee-kyung painstakingly recreates in this novel is someone we know.
(…) A view starting from reproduction.
A view that encompasses everything, breaking away from any particular trend.
Eun Hee-kyung has come to us, abandoning cynicism and hypocrisy.
Standing within us, we witness with our naked eyes the daily lives of people we know.
_Ha Seong-ran (novelist)

If you live here alone for a long time, you won't be able to tell whether it's just kindness or a special feeling.
There are some people who draw a line among themselves and try to appear kind to those outside it.
"Isn't that the same no matter where you live?" Seung-ah replied.
The next moment, a smile appeared on Seung-ah's face.
When that happens, you know.
Why think about where for how long?
If you answer correctly, you can pass through the door.
(Creation and Criticism, Spring 2020)

Kwon Yeo-seon, "Silver People's Ten Millionth Love"

By adding the awakening of another being to the embrace of one person, the history of mother-daughter reconciliation is rewritten.
It also suggests why those who are increasingly isolated due to their precarious lives must break out of that isolation and embark on the path of companionship, and what ethical decisions and attitudes are necessary to embark on the path of true companionship.
_Ryu Bo-seon (literary critic)

Mom, don't you love me?
Banhee nodded.
I couldn't speak.
know.
When I see my mom, I know she loves me.
I can see that it's hard for you to love me.
I love you too, Mom.
That's why it's hard.
But Mom, am I just stupid and don't understand? Why isn't love good and joyful? Why is the reward from love such a nightmare? If we didn't love, it wouldn't be this hard. If we could just hate, why do we love? Why do we love like this?
Why do I love like this, like this, when I can't even cry or breathe?
(Creation and Criticism, Summer 2020)

Choi Eun-mi, "When I Was Me"

On top of the despair of what I have written, I have to write again, so I write toward the possibility of the next despair.
So writing is something that takes you further than yourself, sometimes to places where you can't stand it.
Approaching writing, continuing to write, is an act of looking at one's strength that goes beyond oneself.
It was only while reading "When I Was Me" that I realized how lonely it was, how much I had to run "until my mind went blank," how suffocatingly dizzy and clearly excited I was without writing it myself.
Baek Ji-eun (literary critic)

Yoo Jeong said she wanted to get out.
Yujeong said she wanted to escape from the original world where she had been trapped for a long time.
He said that he wanted to come out through himself, not by avoiding himself.
He said that he was getting out little by little like that.
He said that if he could just get out, he might not die.
(Sentence Webzine December 2019 issue)

Kijun Young, "Bison"

And it was because I realized that finding a better answer is to encounter a work that goes beyond any definition.
I was happy to read "The Bison" because I was so curious about who this author was.
And it was good, but I didn't have the ability to say exactly what was good, so I just sat there for a long time, dumbfounded.
Ah, a good piece of work is just good, and it's good even if I can't explain it in words.
Yoon Seong-hee (novelist)

I thought I knew that my heart, so full of affection, could vanish completely, like the wind, in an instant for such a trivial and petty reason, and that made me sad.
(Axt November/December 2019 issue)

Please be informed
Among the award-winning works, Hwang Jeong-eun's "Year Year Year Year 1: What I Want to Say" will not be included in the collection out of respect for the author's wishes.