Reasons for Selecting the 38th Yi Sang Literary Award Grand Prize Winner

Part 1 Grand Prize Winner and Author Pyeon Hye-young
―Grand Prize Winner｜Monsoon
―Charity masterpiece｜Evening Courtship
―Acceptance Speech｜Silent Stare
―Literary Autobiography | The Lives of Others
―Author's Note | Pyeon Hye-young Garden (Kim Ae-ran)
-Work Review | Dialogue with Anxiety (Jang Du-young)

Part 2 Excellence Award Winner
―Kim Soom | In front of the law
―Son Hong-gyu | The City of Those Who Lost Their Memories
―Cheon Myeong-gwan | Reptile Night
―Jo Hae-jin | The Escort of Light
―Yoon Go-eun | Freddie's Illegitimate Child
―Lee Jang-wook | A story about everything but giraffes
―Yoon I-hyung | Kun's Journey
―An Bo-yoon | The direction of the spiral

Part 3 Selection Process and Judging Comments
―Review and selection process
―Judges' Comments
Kim Yun-sik: Do you know anything about the contradictory direction of the typhoon?
Seo Young-eun: A strange and painful charm
Kwon Young-min: How to Read the Signs of an Anxious Society
Yoon Dae-nyeong: A Look at the Uncertainty of Life
Shin Kyung-sook: A Black Hole in a Dry and Cold Writing Style

The purpose and selection process of the Yi Sang Literary Award

It is likened to a 'monsoon', the direction of which can only be known after it has blown.
A work that tenaciously examines the uncertain elements of life!

“As the story unfolds, leaving readers in a state of inexplicable anxiety, the author emphasizes the simple principle that tension arises only when secrets are not revealed.
Yet, it does not miss the ontological anxiety that human life itself cannot avoid experiencing in a situation of doubt.” ― From the statement of reasons for selecting the award-winning work

Novelist Pyeon Hye-young wins the 38th Yi Sang Literary Award in 2014!

The "Lee Sang Literary Award Anthology," which all readers who love Korean literature eagerly await every year, has finally been published.
The Yi Sang Literary Award Collection, which collects only the best short and medium-length stories published throughout the year, is considered the pinnacle of novel aesthetics representing 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 2014 Yi Sang Literary Award was chosen by five judges (Kim Yun-sik, Seo Yeong-eun, Kwon Yeong-min, Yoon Dae-nyeong, and Shin Kyung-sook).
After careful consideration, Pyeon Hye-young's [Monsoon] was selected.
Pyeon Hye-young has been receiving acclaim from critics and readers for her works that portray the inner loneliness and anxiety of human beings in dense and dry sentences.
The anxiety-related materials and scenes scattered throughout [Monsoon], the winner of this year's Yi Sang Literary Award, can also be understood as being connected to the author's ongoing interests.
In contrast to previous styles that focused on the process of confronting enormous anxiety, the artist's world is expected to advance in that he persistently examines the ontological anxiety that human life itself cannot avoid.

In addition to the grand prize winner Pyeon Hye-young's [Monsoon] and the charity work [Evening Courtship], this collection includes the Excellence Award winners Kim Soom's [Before the Law], Son Hong-gyu's [City of Those Who Lost Their Memory], Cheon Myeong-gwan's [Night of Reptiles], Jo Hae-jin's [Escort of Light], Yoon Go-eun's [Freddy's Illegitimate Child], Lee Jang-wook's [Stories about Everything But Giraffes], Yoon Yi-hyung's [Koon's Journey], and Ahn Bo-yoon's [Direction of the Spiral], which are works that stand out for their depth and experimental nature in life, adding to the fun and taste of reading.

Pyeon Hye-young's [Monsoon]: The Selection Process

The final selection for the Yi Sang Literary Award was held on January 7, 2014.
The final selection committee included critics Kim Yun-sik and Kwon Young-min, as well as novelists Seo Young-eun, Yoon Dae-nyeong, and Shin Kyung-sook, winners of the Yi Sang Literary Award.
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.

Kim Soom, [Before the Law]
Son Hong-gyu, [The City of Those Who Lost Their Memory]
An Bo-yoon, [The Direction of the Spiral]
Yoon Go-eun, [Freddy's Illegitimate Child]
Yoon Lee-hyung, [Kun's Journey]
Lee Jang-wook, [A Story About Everything But Giraffes]
Jo Hae-jin, [Escort of Light]
Cheon Myeong-gwan, [Night of the Reptile]
Pyeon Hye-young, [Monsoon]

The works selected by the judges for this year's Yi Sang Literary Award were works by Son Hong-gyu, Yun I-hyeong, Jo Hae-jin, Cheon Myeong-gwan, and Pyeon Hye-yeong.
Among them, in selecting Pyeon Hye-young's [Monsoon] as the grand prize winner, the judges highly praised the weight of the work and its novelistic achievement, noting that the author was attempting new variations on the themes and techniques she had often dealt with.
Critic Kim Yun-sik, who was in charge of judging the work, noted the excellence of this work, saying, “It is a novel that poses questions to all of us who are experiencing the difficulties of life,” and novelist Seo Young-eun acknowledged the weight of this work, saying, “The charm lies in how each indifferent word suddenly transforms into a meaningful theme.”
Critic Kwon Young-min noted that “the pain and secrets that are deeply embedded in the protagonist’s life are exquisitely intertwined with the anxiety that threatens human existence itself.”
Novelist Yoon Dae-nyeong commented, “This work compresses and reveals the reality that the ecology of life expressed through relationships is collapsing,” and novelist Shin Kyung-sook said, “I trust the author’s ability to make us look again at the depth of this life filled with foreign substances by covering and covering the signs of anxiety.”

The judges highly praised the work's achievement as a novelistic exploration of certain symptoms of an anxious society and unanimously selected [Monsoon] as the winner of the 38th Yi Sang Literary Award in 2014.

Grand Prize Winner [Monsoon] and 8 Excellence Award Winners

[Monsoon] is a work that uses the death of a child as the basis of its narrative and, as the title suggests, tenaciously examines the uncertain elements of life.
In addition, the insurmountable sense of alienation and disconnection that lurk in the cracks of relationships are compared to the situation of 'Danjeon' and are described in a fluid manner using the author's unique dry and meticulous writing style.
In a life where nothing is certain or proven, a life where absurdity gradually becomes a prerequisite, the protagonist can only helplessly watch himself transform into a non-existent being.
This work, which compresses and reveals the reality of the collapse of the ecology of life expressed through relationships, shows countless fragments of truth that have been lost in the repetitiveness of life.

In addition to the award-winning work, Kim Soom's [Before the Law] questions the fundamental definition of good and evil through the various thoughts and confusion experienced by the father of a school bully; Son Hong-gyu's [The City of Those Who Lost Their Memories] depicts the cracks in life through the process of a family heading toward ruin after losing all their memories; and Cheon Myeong-gwan's [Night of the Reptile] expresses the duality of life and death through the memories of reptiles that contain a desperate survival instinct.
Also, Jo Hae-jin's [Light Escort], which stands out for its authorial ability to breathe life into the memories and records of two worlds by cross-illuminating them with a dense composition, and Yoon Go-eun's [Freddy's Illegitimate Child], which depicts the process in which a unique value gradually disappears as it is swayed by commercial poses, are works that display their own unique individuality.
Also worth noting are Lee Jang-wook's [A Story About Everything But Giraffes], which questions the definition of truth and falsehood through the story of a man who falls in blind love for a giraffe; Yoon Yi-hyung's [Kun's Journey], which deals with a journey to escape from a stereotypical life and find one's true self through the symbol of 'Kun'; and Ahn Bo-yoon's [The Direction of the Spiral], which shows hidden talent through unique novel writing that connects the main text and footnotes.

From the 'Acceptance Speech' of Grand Prize winner Hye-Young Pyeon

Because it is an award with such a name,
I am very happy.
I am so grateful for this wonderful fortune and encouragement.
Even if you want to shake off the weight by being frivolous and reckless and joking,
I feel embarrassed and calm down.

I will not act rashly and will remain silent.
To the novel that is becoming increasingly shy and distant
I will use my strength to approach it willingly, steadily, and sincerely.