Reasons for Selecting the 39th Yi Sang Literary Award Grand Prize Winner

Part 1 Grand Prize Winner and Author Kim Soom
Grand Prize Winner | Kim Soom-ppuri's Story
Charity Masterpiece | Left-Handed Woman
Acceptance Speech | Time to Write a Novel
Literary Autobiography | Ulsan, Chubu, Mokdong 18, and Seoul
Author's Note | The Effects of the Full Moon Under the Bright Sun
Works | Time to See Roots: Jang Du-yeong

Part 2 Excellence Award Winner
Jeon Seong-tae's picnic
Close to the prayer of Kyungran Cho
Lee Pyeong-jae's Melody of Earth
Yoon Seong-hee's vacation
Son Hong-gyu wandering
Han Yu-ju, seven people with the same name and their respective moments
Lee Jang-wook's Christmas Carol

Part 3 Selection Process and Judging Comments
Evaluation and selection process
Review comments
―Choi Il-nam: Reviving Dead Roots
― A masterpiece that tenaciously pursues the characteristics of Kim Yun-sik's roots.
― Lee Tae-dong's Classic Thematic Consciousness of Life and a New Metaphorical Approach
― Yoon Hu-myeong's net spread across reality and history
― Kim Seong-gon: Korea's tragic modern history illuminated through an ecological perspective

The purpose and selection process of the Yi Sang Literary Award

Losing our roots due to industrialization and mechanization
A masterpiece that transforms modern people's anxiety and wandering into the possibility of a new life!

“The Root Story is a masterpiece that successfully sublimates the devastation of modern society caused by industrialization and development, the uprooting of modern people, and the pain caused by migration to other places, by comparing humans to trees.
The author closely juxtaposes the anxiety and pain of trees being transplanted to other places with the lives of uprooted people who have left their homes.
“The author shows the anxiety and wandering of modern people, while also suggesting the possibility of a new life through the harmony and coexistence of shallow roots that spread out sideways and deep-seated deep roots.” - From the statement of reasons for selecting the award-winning work

■ Novelist Kim Soom wins the grand prize at the 39th Yi Sang Literary Award in 2015!

The Yi Sang Literary Award Anthology, which all readers who love Korean literature eagerly await every year, has finally been published.
The Yi Sang Literary Award Anthology, which collects only the best short and medium-length stories published throughout the year, is considered the pinnacle of novel aesthetics that represents the flow of modern novels, with award-winning works that clearly highlight the golden part of Korean novel literature through a rational and fair judging process and outstanding artistry.
The grand prize winner of the 2015 Yi Sang Literary Award was Kim Soom's Root Story, which was selected after careful deliberation by five judges (Choi Il-nam, Kim Yun-sik, Lee Tae-dong, Yoon Hu-myeong, and Kim Seong-gon).
Kim Soom has received acclaim from critics and readers alike for his novels that portray the dark shadows cast over the dark side of society and the deteriorating relationships in such a society through his uniquely cruel imagery and fantastical techniques.
This year's winner of the Yi Sang Literary Award, Root Story, compares the protagonist's current life to a root, and shows the process of embracing the lives of those who have been defeated by harsh reality through the regeneration of roots.
This work stands out for its rich and engaging descriptions that overflow between the lines, and although it has a different development style from Kim Soom's previous works, the author's new attempt feels fresh despite its somewhat unfamiliarity.

In addition to the grand prize winner Kim Soom's Root Story and the charity work Left-Handed Woman, this collection also includes the Excellence Award winners Lee Jang-wook's Christmas Carol and Jo Kyung-ran's Close to Prayer, Lee Pyeong-jae's Melody of the Earth, which were fiercely competing for the grand prize, as well as Jeon Seong-tae's Picnic, Son Hong-gyu's Wandering, Yun Seong-hee's Vacation, and Han Yu-ju's Seven People with the Same Name and Their Moments. These works stand out for their depth and experimental nature in life, adding to the fun and enjoyment of reading.

■ Kim Soom's Root Story and the Selection Process

The final selection for the Yi Sang Literary Award was held on January 6, 2015.
The final selection committee included novelist Choi Il-nam, literary critic Kim Yun-sik, literary critic Lee Tae-dong, novelist Yoon Hu-myeong, and literary critic Kim Seong-gon.
Among the short and medium-length stories published last year, the following works passed the preliminary screening process and were selected for the final round after receiving recommendations from over 100 literary critics, literary magazine editors, literary reporters, and literary researchers.
(alphabetical order)

Son Hong-gyu wandering
Yoon Seong-hee's vacation
Lee Jang-wook's Christmas Carol
Lee Pyeong-jae's Melody of the Earth
Jeon Seong-tae's picnic
Close to the prayer of Kyungran Cho
Han Yu-ju, seven people with the same name and their respective moments

The works that the judges focused on as winners of this year's Yi Sang Literary Award were works by Lee Jang-wook, Jo Kyung-ran, Lee Pyeong-jae, and Kim Soom.
Among them, in selecting Kim Soom's Root Story as the grand prize winner, the judges highly praised the author's ability to "create such a timely and profound story using material that could easily be trite" as "a work that calmly illuminates Korea's tragic modern history from an ecological perspective."

Novelist Choi Il-nam, who was in charge of the judging, said, “It gives the feeling that it is a work that has been cherished and refined for a long time,” but noted that the format of the work is different from previous works, and literary critic Kim Yun-sik evaluated the work as “a masterpiece with a profound theme that contains 33 percent fear and 19 percent sadness.”
Literary critic Lee Tae-dong commented, “It not only serves as a mirror reflecting the current situation with the theme of life being destroyed by machine civilization, but also shows the aesthetics of a novel that explores the question of the essence of humanity,” and novelist Yoon Hu-myeong said, “It is a work that shows that, like a root that digs into everything, it spreads various nets in reality and history.”
Literary critic Kim Seong-gon pointed out that it is “a weighty work that adds historical reflection and weight.”
The judges highly praised this work for its exploration of the possibility of life's renewal while dealing with the weighty subject of modern anxiety and wandering, and agreed to select "Root Story" as the winner of the 39th Yi Sang Literary Award in 2015.

■ The Grand Prize-winning Root Story and 7 Excellent Award-winning Pieces

The Root Story is a work that juxtaposes humans with trees and depicts the anxiety and wandering of modern people who have lost their homes and humanity due to industrialization and mechanization.
It tenaciously pursues the characteristics of 'roots' as its theme, and calmly writes about Korea's tragic modern and contemporary history illuminated through an ecological perspective.
It deeply depicts the fear and anxiety felt by those uprooted by colonialism, war, and the violence of mechanized civilization, and by sharing their suffering within our own lives, it suggests a new way of life through harmony and coexistence.

In addition to the award-winning work, Jeon Seong-tae's Picnic, which reminds us of the fading life of old age and the importance of family through a treasure hunt with children; Jo Kyung-ran's Prayer, which depicts the story of 34-year-old Chinese translator Mi-ho and three elderly people in a calm style; and Lee Pyeong-jae's Melody of the Earth, which sadly observes the spectacle of nature destroyed by humans in the past driving them to death from the perspective of a tree, and suggests the organic relationship between nature and humans, are also noteworthy.
Also, Yoon Sung-hee's Vacation, in which a middle-aged widower feels present joy and gratitude while reminiscing about the past during a summer vacation with his friends and family; Son Hong-gyu's Wandering, which depicts the wandering of the living who do not want to acknowledge the death of the one who has passed away; Han Yu-ju's Seven People with the Same Name and Their Moments, which tells the story of seven people with the same name living their own lives with their own breaths; and Lee Jang-wook's A Christmas Carol, which deals with the confrontation between the pure and false lives of upper-class men on a strange night.
The above seven works were selected for the Excellence Award as noteworthy masterpieces that demonstrate the aesthetics of novels that explore the contemporary situation and the nature of human nature.