[Asia Economy Reporter Seo Mideum] The award ceremony for the ‘Kyobo Bookstore x Lotte Cultureworks SF Theme Contest,’ co-hosted by Kyobo Bookstore and Lotte Cultureworks, was held on the 15th at Kyobo Bookstore’s Sangam-dong headquarters. The winning works were “The 44th Galaxy Transfer Terminal Hole-in-the-Wall Store” by author Bae In-kyung and “Artificial Intelligence Insurance Investigator, Lloyd” by author Jamgon (pen name).
“The 44th Galaxy Transfer Terminal Hole-in-the-Wall Store” (Bae In-kyung) is a fantasy drama about a protagonist who runs a hole-in-the-wall store in front of the 44th transfer terminal that leads to space and welcomes aliens as customers. It is a warm work that uses aliens as a metaphor to talk about our lives, which seem different but are not. The work received praise from the judges, stating, “The author’s writing skills are excellent, and the expressions are beautiful. It is a story that skillfully combines the SF genre and drama, with outstanding imagination, novel settings, and remarkable character ideas.”
Winner Bae In-kyung said, “People I met by chance on the street spoke to me, and those words became stories,” and added, “I am grateful to the contest organizers for allowing me to share this story with more people. I hope this writing helps create a world where differences are understood and people embrace each other.”
The other winning work, “Artificial Intelligence Insurance Investigator, Lloyd” (Jamgon), is a detective drama depicting the story of Lloyd, the protagonist equipped with augmented intelligence technology, who gets an internship at an insurance company specializing in AI-related accidents and investigates related incidents. The judges commented, “Its strength lies in being a near-future, reality-based SF. The introduction of augmented intelligence as a character setting is interesting. Considerable effort was put into building the overall worldview and story design.”
Winner Jamgon said, “When I heard the news of winning the SF Theme Contest, I was going through a very difficult time as I hadn’t written for over half a year. I almost gave up, but hearing the award news made me start typing again,” and added, “It felt like encouragement for the past 10 years, so I plan to write for another 10 years.”
Each winner received a prize of 5 million KRW, and Lotte Cultureworks will review the possibility of adapting the winning works into videos. Additionally, depending on the genre and commercialization direction, opportunities will be provided to publish the works as paper books or e-books through Kyobo Bookstore or affiliated companies.
A total of 424 works were submitted to this SF Theme Contest, including various genres such as drama, mystery, romance, and comedy combined with the SF genre. After intense discussions among the organizers and professional judges, two works were selected based on the suitability between the theme and manuscript content, popularity, originality, completeness, and potential for development into secondary content.
Since its inception in 2019, the Kyobo Bookstore Theme Contest, now in its fifth edition, is held to revitalize the domestic content market and discover trendy and differentiated original stories. Especially this year, to enhance the professionalism of the theme contest and secure better stories, it was planned and co-hosted with Lotte Cultureworks. The fifth theme, ‘SF,’ has recently gained widespread public interest and is highly regarded by OSMU (One Source Multi Use) businesses for its high potential to expand original stories into various content.
More detailed information about the theme contest can be found on the Kyobo Bookstore Story website.
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