2025 Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award Winners: Winter Garden
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Description
Book Introduction
Even without using the word love
You don't have to try to do something with grand resolutions
Reflecting on the dazzling achievements of Korean literature in 2025
Award-winning work by Lee Ju-ran, "Winter Garden"
Lee Ju-ran's "Winter Garden" has been selected as the winner of the 2025 Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award.
The Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award, which honors novelist Kim Yu-jeong and has been selecting outstanding works of short fiction published in literary magazines over the past year, has served as a landmark in confirming the meaningful trends in Korean literature.
This year, the Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award was judged by Ha Seong-ran (novelist), Choi Su-cheol (novelist), Lee Gyeong-jae (literary critic), and In A-young (literary critic) as a combined preliminary and final selection committee, and after a heated discussion, Lee Ju-ran's "Winter Garden" was selected as the winner.
The award-winning novel "Winter Garden," which depicts the daily life of Hye-suk, a sixty-year-old woman, is a novel that clearly shows how much love and sadness are stirred in a life that seems to be free of everyday events.
In the five award-nominated works included together, Kim Seong-jung's "New Husband," Kim Yeon-su's "The World a Little Later," Seo Jang-won's "Hideo," Lim Seon-woo's "Love-Folding Hospital," and Choi Yesol's "Justice in the Past," you will be able to see various aspects of our current society and the fruits of literature.
You don't have to try to do something with grand resolutions
Reflecting on the dazzling achievements of Korean literature in 2025
Award-winning work by Lee Ju-ran, "Winter Garden"
Lee Ju-ran's "Winter Garden" has been selected as the winner of the 2025 Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award.
The Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award, which honors novelist Kim Yu-jeong and has been selecting outstanding works of short fiction published in literary magazines over the past year, has served as a landmark in confirming the meaningful trends in Korean literature.
This year, the Kim Yu-jeong Literary Award was judged by Ha Seong-ran (novelist), Choi Su-cheol (novelist), Lee Gyeong-jae (literary critic), and In A-young (literary critic) as a combined preliminary and final selection committee, and after a heated discussion, Lee Ju-ran's "Winter Garden" was selected as the winner.
The award-winning novel "Winter Garden," which depicts the daily life of Hye-suk, a sixty-year-old woman, is a novel that clearly shows how much love and sadness are stirred in a life that seems to be free of everyday events.
In the five award-nominated works included together, Kim Seong-jung's "New Husband," Kim Yeon-su's "The World a Little Later," Seo Jang-won's "Hideo," Lim Seon-woo's "Love-Folding Hospital," and Choi Yesol's "Justice in the Past," you will be able to see various aspects of our current society and the fruits of literature.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Review comments
Acceptance Speech
Award-winning work
Lee Ju-ran, Winter Garden
Award nominations
Kim Seong-jung, "The New Husband"
Kim Yeon-su, "The World a Little Later"
Seo Jang-won, "Hideo"
Lim Seon-woo, "Love-Folding Hospital"
Choi Ye-sol, "Justice in the Past"
Acceptance Speech
Award-winning work
Lee Ju-ran, Winter Garden
Award nominations
Kim Seong-jung, "The New Husband"
Kim Yeon-su, "The World a Little Later"
Seo Jang-won, "Hideo"
Lim Seon-woo, "Love-Folding Hospital"
Choi Ye-sol, "Justice in the Past"
Detailed image
Into the book
Now, I hope that Mr. Oh In-hwan will remember the times we spent together for as long as possible.
Since it's already over, that's all I can really hope for, and I'm already doing it.
I keep thinking that my time is not a movie, a drama, or a novel, but simply reality.
And every time that happens, I look at the garden where I made my pledge and promise about my future in front of Mr. Oh In-hwan, and where I shouted that I would report him if he didn't get out of here right now.
When I think about whether the feelings that have arisen in the future will ever come back to me, I feel a little sad, even though it is not something I have already experienced or am experiencing now.
--- pp.43-44 From "Lee Ju-ran, Winter Garden"
When he was transferred to the nursing home, I carefully packed his device in my luggage, but I never turned it on again.
If the device is left like this for a long time, he might succeed in achieving the 'natural death' he desires.
It doesn't matter anyway.
Since I had glaucoma, my eyesight has deteriorated significantly, so now I can't even see clearly if I try to operate the device.
But who are you talking to?
Having been deeply connected to someone for so long, I forgot that it was just everyday conversation, became unnecessarily serious, and expressed my opinion everywhere, which made me an unlikable person.
Unable to adapt to communal living, I gradually closed the doors and indulged in geriatric depression.
If it weren't for him, I would have dived into the deep sea long ago.
--- p.81 From "Kim Seong-jung, the New Husband"
The train was moving towards the river, passing through a forest of brightly lit buildings.
Looking at the face of the baby in the photo, crying but not crying, I remembered that winter when I was writing something like a novel over and over again.
At first, the sentences didn't make sense and didn't make sense, but as I rewrote them over and over again, they gradually became more vivid.
Like a waking dream.
Although the content was still impossible, I did not reject that impossibility but accepted it.
In that novel-like thing, Dongyeon and I were still drinking draft beer and talking at the cave two or three times a week.
We were deeply in love.
forever.
In something similar to that novel.
--- p.108 "Kim Yeon-su, A World A Little Later"
“There is a past between Korea and Japan.”
Hideo's stories always ended like that, and then we would change the conversation to stories about plays or school life.
If I could turn back time and go back to that time, I would probably tell a different story.
There is a past between Korea and Japan that has not been resolved at all, but even so, it is not the case that Hideo should bear the blame for it, and that the fact that a high school Japanese teacher was publicly called a slut is racism and xenophobia.
Of course, Hideo now doesn't need to hear those words anymore.
--- p.128 From "Seo Jang-won, Hideo"
Why would you cut off a healthy finger? Because you love it.
“We will create your soulmate in 5 days” was the representative promotional slogan of the Love Folding Hospital.
The development of cellular memory (a phenomenon in which body cells store memories or experiences and transmit them to others) and new immunosuppressant drugs led to the emergence of grafting surgery, which made it possible to mentally bond with others.
In five days, my partner and I shared our main memories, and we were able to match our personalities, tastes, and even our tastes.
So, we have moved from the days when we put rings on each other's ring fingers when we love each other to the days when we cut off each other's ring fingers.
--- p.142 From "Im Seon-woo, Love-Folding Hospital"
Is it really true that Yoon Hyun-soo is my nephew and Jang Hyun-ah is really my new sister-in-law?
If family relationships are so simply defined, why did Yoon Jung-soo and I, and Yoon Jung-soo, I, and our parents, end up scattered, dead, or left alone?
Still, the Yoon Jung-soo in the photo that Jang Hyun-ah showed was more like Yoon Jung-soo than anyone else, Jang Hyun-ah was Jang Hyun-ah, and Yoon Hyun-soo was just Yoon Hyun-soo.
So, a family photo of those three.
Yoon Jeong-su was sitting on a bench with his family in a park that looked a little deserted, laughing.
Fatally.
I don't know why, but the first thing that came to my mind when I saw that picture was that it was lethal.
Since it's already over, that's all I can really hope for, and I'm already doing it.
I keep thinking that my time is not a movie, a drama, or a novel, but simply reality.
And every time that happens, I look at the garden where I made my pledge and promise about my future in front of Mr. Oh In-hwan, and where I shouted that I would report him if he didn't get out of here right now.
When I think about whether the feelings that have arisen in the future will ever come back to me, I feel a little sad, even though it is not something I have already experienced or am experiencing now.
--- pp.43-44 From "Lee Ju-ran, Winter Garden"
When he was transferred to the nursing home, I carefully packed his device in my luggage, but I never turned it on again.
If the device is left like this for a long time, he might succeed in achieving the 'natural death' he desires.
It doesn't matter anyway.
Since I had glaucoma, my eyesight has deteriorated significantly, so now I can't even see clearly if I try to operate the device.
But who are you talking to?
Having been deeply connected to someone for so long, I forgot that it was just everyday conversation, became unnecessarily serious, and expressed my opinion everywhere, which made me an unlikable person.
Unable to adapt to communal living, I gradually closed the doors and indulged in geriatric depression.
If it weren't for him, I would have dived into the deep sea long ago.
--- p.81 From "Kim Seong-jung, the New Husband"
The train was moving towards the river, passing through a forest of brightly lit buildings.
Looking at the face of the baby in the photo, crying but not crying, I remembered that winter when I was writing something like a novel over and over again.
At first, the sentences didn't make sense and didn't make sense, but as I rewrote them over and over again, they gradually became more vivid.
Like a waking dream.
Although the content was still impossible, I did not reject that impossibility but accepted it.
In that novel-like thing, Dongyeon and I were still drinking draft beer and talking at the cave two or three times a week.
We were deeply in love.
forever.
In something similar to that novel.
--- p.108 "Kim Yeon-su, A World A Little Later"
“There is a past between Korea and Japan.”
Hideo's stories always ended like that, and then we would change the conversation to stories about plays or school life.
If I could turn back time and go back to that time, I would probably tell a different story.
There is a past between Korea and Japan that has not been resolved at all, but even so, it is not the case that Hideo should bear the blame for it, and that the fact that a high school Japanese teacher was publicly called a slut is racism and xenophobia.
Of course, Hideo now doesn't need to hear those words anymore.
--- p.128 From "Seo Jang-won, Hideo"
Why would you cut off a healthy finger? Because you love it.
“We will create your soulmate in 5 days” was the representative promotional slogan of the Love Folding Hospital.
The development of cellular memory (a phenomenon in which body cells store memories or experiences and transmit them to others) and new immunosuppressant drugs led to the emergence of grafting surgery, which made it possible to mentally bond with others.
In five days, my partner and I shared our main memories, and we were able to match our personalities, tastes, and even our tastes.
So, we have moved from the days when we put rings on each other's ring fingers when we love each other to the days when we cut off each other's ring fingers.
--- p.142 From "Im Seon-woo, Love-Folding Hospital"
Is it really true that Yoon Hyun-soo is my nephew and Jang Hyun-ah is really my new sister-in-law?
If family relationships are so simply defined, why did Yoon Jung-soo and I, and Yoon Jung-soo, I, and our parents, end up scattered, dead, or left alone?
Still, the Yoon Jung-soo in the photo that Jang Hyun-ah showed was more like Yoon Jung-soo than anyone else, Jang Hyun-ah was Jang Hyun-ah, and Yoon Hyun-soo was just Yoon Hyun-soo.
So, a family photo of those three.
Yoon Jeong-su was sitting on a bench with his family in a park that looked a little deserted, laughing.
Fatally.
I don't know why, but the first thing that came to my mind when I saw that picture was that it was lethal.
--- p.176 From “Choi Ye-sol, Justice of the Past”
Publisher's Review
Even without using the word love
You don't have to try to do something with grand resolutions
Hye-suk in the award-winning work “Winter Garden” is a cleaner.
A person who wakes up first thing in the morning and cleans the entire building before people start going to work.
The name of Hye-sook's sixty-year-old daughter is 'Mirae'.
My daughter Mirae brings little things from the world to her mother and feeds them to her mother.
Words floating around the world, trends, dramas, movies, romance, MBTI, early morning delivery, etc.
To give Hye-sook a faint sense of the pace of the world between her monotonous and complex life.
As if gently stepping on the accelerator to speed up Hye-sook's slow life.
My daughter Mirae has been living with Hye-sook for seven years.
Hye-sook's life is simple.
I go to the officetel, clean, come home, wash, eat, watch TV or YouTube, and then fall asleep.
Minor issues between the cleaning company and the building manager, the level of conflict, and episodes with rude people create small gaps in Hye-sook's daily life, and one day, life goes on 'just like that'.
Then, suddenly, an accident happens.
Mr. Oh In-hwan, whom I met at the large-print book club.
Very occasionally, an unspecified love intrudes into the monotony of life.
That future is obvious.
Predicting an obvious future is something that anyone around Hye-sook's age has experienced in their lives.
Still, love is painful and longing stings.
Even a garden frozen in winter begins to stir as spring arrives and the temperature rises.
Even in an empty winter garden, there are still cabbages and flowers that have not yet bloomed, and birds and stray cats are busily coming and going.
The title of the award-winning work, 'Winter Garden', becomes a landscape of the mind.
Things like the determination not to be overcome by sadness no matter what shame and insults may intrude into life, and the determination not to make a fuss about pain.
The award-winning work "Winter Garden" says that living one's daily life to the fullest without blaming anyone is the true essence of a loving heart.
Important and diverse currents that permeate the present
Kim Seong-jung's award-nominated work "New Husband" is a story about an 'artificial intelligence husband'.
A hologram husband who looks exactly like his real husband, but has a different personality and emotions thanks to machine learning.
'New Husband' is a program for those who are addicted to kindness and cannot escape their husband's aggressive tendencies or are dissatisfied with their married life.
The novel uses each story selected for this program as a motif to illustrate how the relationship called marriage operates and is narrated in a reality dominated by artificial intelligence.
Kim Yeon-su's "The World A Little Later" is a work that flexibly depicts the overlapping points of reality and unreality, such as reality and dreams, dreams and novels.
The story unfolds as the author meets a character he wrote about in his first novel by chance, connecting the past and present, and connecting dreams and his work.
As the time of the creative work called a novel and the time of reality are connected, a three-dimensional world is created and brought to life.
Seo Jang-won's "Hideo" is a work that three-dimensionally reveals the masculinity of this era.
Hideo's masculinity, born to a Japanese father and a Korean mother, is transformed in a similar or different way to the historical past.
In this novel, which looks at a man's life from a mediator's perspective, we can take a literary look at the process of gender transformation along with generational theory.
Lim Seon-woo's "Love Folding Hospital" stands out for its unique setting and flowing narrative, which concerns a surgery in which the left ring finger is amputated and transplanted onto the other person's hand.
For complete love, a surgery where all of that person's information is transplanted into one's own by interlocking fingers to understand and love the other person.
It is a work that asks about love with attractive yet serious questions about the essential thing called love.
Choi Ye-sol's "Justice in the Past" is the story of an aunt who is left to care for her seven-year-old nephew by chance.
This is a work that questions the essence and form of family, as the son of an older brother who was separated from the protagonist when he was young suddenly enters his life.
The overlapping attitudes toward life from the perspectives of adults and children are depicted through flowing and attractive brushstrokes.
"Winter Garden," which depicts the daily life of Hye-sook, a woman who lives a simple life, is a novel that shows how much love and sadness ripple through the life of one person who seems so calm that nothing happens.
Hye-sook, a cleaning worker, is tending to the garden at her friend's rented house.
Even though the garden seems empty in winter, if you look at it quietly, you feel like time is passing differently.
Hye-sook, who repeats her ordinary daily routine of cleaning, eating, and sleeping in an officetel, says that her daughter wants to live simply like her mother, but upon closer inspection, it is not so simple.
Sometimes, she falls asleep while watching a movie about a person who cleans like her, sometimes she visits her close friend's house and is amazed by the cat, sometimes she drinks soju with her daughter and talks to her about her unrequited love, and sometimes she has a thrilling encounter with a man she met at a large-print book club.
As everyday life flows quietly, Hye-sook calmly observes and cares for the small moments that happen to her.
No matter what shame and insults come to life, I live my daily life quietly without complaining about the pain or blaming anyone.
Isn't this what it means to live your best life, to love life? Without using the word "love," without constantly trying to do something with grandiose resolutions, it's about living each day quietly, like tending a winter garden.
Even in a seemingly empty winter garden, where frozen cabbages and flowers that have not yet bloomed are planted, and magpies and stray cats busily come and go, even in the life of a person who seems to be living “just” without any particular meaning, countless sorrows, laughter, regrets, and longings breathe.
I hope that many readers will linger for a long time in this novel's restrained sentiment, humor, and warmth, depicting the patterns of life.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to novelist Lee Ju-ran for showing me such a moving landscape, and my deepest congratulations to all the novelists nominated for the award.
- Judge Inayoung In (literary critic)
You don't have to try to do something with grand resolutions
Hye-suk in the award-winning work “Winter Garden” is a cleaner.
A person who wakes up first thing in the morning and cleans the entire building before people start going to work.
The name of Hye-sook's sixty-year-old daughter is 'Mirae'.
My daughter Mirae brings little things from the world to her mother and feeds them to her mother.
Words floating around the world, trends, dramas, movies, romance, MBTI, early morning delivery, etc.
To give Hye-sook a faint sense of the pace of the world between her monotonous and complex life.
As if gently stepping on the accelerator to speed up Hye-sook's slow life.
My daughter Mirae has been living with Hye-sook for seven years.
Hye-sook's life is simple.
I go to the officetel, clean, come home, wash, eat, watch TV or YouTube, and then fall asleep.
Minor issues between the cleaning company and the building manager, the level of conflict, and episodes with rude people create small gaps in Hye-sook's daily life, and one day, life goes on 'just like that'.
Then, suddenly, an accident happens.
Mr. Oh In-hwan, whom I met at the large-print book club.
Very occasionally, an unspecified love intrudes into the monotony of life.
That future is obvious.
Predicting an obvious future is something that anyone around Hye-sook's age has experienced in their lives.
Still, love is painful and longing stings.
Even a garden frozen in winter begins to stir as spring arrives and the temperature rises.
Even in an empty winter garden, there are still cabbages and flowers that have not yet bloomed, and birds and stray cats are busily coming and going.
The title of the award-winning work, 'Winter Garden', becomes a landscape of the mind.
Things like the determination not to be overcome by sadness no matter what shame and insults may intrude into life, and the determination not to make a fuss about pain.
The award-winning work "Winter Garden" says that living one's daily life to the fullest without blaming anyone is the true essence of a loving heart.
Important and diverse currents that permeate the present
Kim Seong-jung's award-nominated work "New Husband" is a story about an 'artificial intelligence husband'.
A hologram husband who looks exactly like his real husband, but has a different personality and emotions thanks to machine learning.
'New Husband' is a program for those who are addicted to kindness and cannot escape their husband's aggressive tendencies or are dissatisfied with their married life.
The novel uses each story selected for this program as a motif to illustrate how the relationship called marriage operates and is narrated in a reality dominated by artificial intelligence.
Kim Yeon-su's "The World A Little Later" is a work that flexibly depicts the overlapping points of reality and unreality, such as reality and dreams, dreams and novels.
The story unfolds as the author meets a character he wrote about in his first novel by chance, connecting the past and present, and connecting dreams and his work.
As the time of the creative work called a novel and the time of reality are connected, a three-dimensional world is created and brought to life.
Seo Jang-won's "Hideo" is a work that three-dimensionally reveals the masculinity of this era.
Hideo's masculinity, born to a Japanese father and a Korean mother, is transformed in a similar or different way to the historical past.
In this novel, which looks at a man's life from a mediator's perspective, we can take a literary look at the process of gender transformation along with generational theory.
Lim Seon-woo's "Love Folding Hospital" stands out for its unique setting and flowing narrative, which concerns a surgery in which the left ring finger is amputated and transplanted onto the other person's hand.
For complete love, a surgery where all of that person's information is transplanted into one's own by interlocking fingers to understand and love the other person.
It is a work that asks about love with attractive yet serious questions about the essential thing called love.
Choi Ye-sol's "Justice in the Past" is the story of an aunt who is left to care for her seven-year-old nephew by chance.
This is a work that questions the essence and form of family, as the son of an older brother who was separated from the protagonist when he was young suddenly enters his life.
The overlapping attitudes toward life from the perspectives of adults and children are depicted through flowing and attractive brushstrokes.
"Winter Garden," which depicts the daily life of Hye-sook, a woman who lives a simple life, is a novel that shows how much love and sadness ripple through the life of one person who seems so calm that nothing happens.
Hye-sook, a cleaning worker, is tending to the garden at her friend's rented house.
Even though the garden seems empty in winter, if you look at it quietly, you feel like time is passing differently.
Hye-sook, who repeats her ordinary daily routine of cleaning, eating, and sleeping in an officetel, says that her daughter wants to live simply like her mother, but upon closer inspection, it is not so simple.
Sometimes, she falls asleep while watching a movie about a person who cleans like her, sometimes she visits her close friend's house and is amazed by the cat, sometimes she drinks soju with her daughter and talks to her about her unrequited love, and sometimes she has a thrilling encounter with a man she met at a large-print book club.
As everyday life flows quietly, Hye-sook calmly observes and cares for the small moments that happen to her.
No matter what shame and insults come to life, I live my daily life quietly without complaining about the pain or blaming anyone.
Isn't this what it means to live your best life, to love life? Without using the word "love," without constantly trying to do something with grandiose resolutions, it's about living each day quietly, like tending a winter garden.
Even in a seemingly empty winter garden, where frozen cabbages and flowers that have not yet bloomed are planted, and magpies and stray cats busily come and go, even in the life of a person who seems to be living “just” without any particular meaning, countless sorrows, laughter, regrets, and longings breathe.
I hope that many readers will linger for a long time in this novel's restrained sentiment, humor, and warmth, depicting the patterns of life.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to novelist Lee Ju-ran for showing me such a moving landscape, and my deepest congratulations to all the novelists nominated for the award.
- Judge Inayoung In (literary critic)
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: October 24, 2025
- Page count, weight, size: 208 pages | 326g | 135*205*17mm
- ISBN13: 9791167375896
- ISBN10: 1167375890
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