Pyeon Hye-young's "Grape Field Cemetery" Selected for Kim Seung-ok Literary Award Grand Prize

▲Author Pyun Hye-young.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] On the 19th, the organizing publisher Munhakdongne announced that novelist Pyun Hye-young's "Vineyard Cemetery" was selected as the grand prize winner of this year's Kim Seung-ok Literary Award.

Pyun Hye-young, who debuted in 2000 with a short story in the Seoul Shinmun New Spring Literary Contest, has received the Dongin Literary Award, Yi Sang Literary Award, and Hyundai Literary Award, among others. She has published short story collections such as "Aoi Garden," "Towards the Menagerie," "Evening's Courtship," "Night Passes," and novels including "Ash and Red" and "Went to the Western Forest." The grand prize carries a cash award of 50 million won.

"Vineyard Cemetery" is a novel depicting the lives of four women who graduated together from "Yeosang" (Girls' Commercial High School) in the late 1990s and had to live as female youth with only a high school diploma in their subsequent life fields.

The judging panel stated the reason for selecting the grand prize: "A novel that combines precise details, appropriate symbolism, empathetic perspectives, and deep resonance," adding, "It can be regarded as the author's retrospective response to our era summarized as 'meritocratic examination' and 'academic credential-based social hierarchy.'"

The excellence awards, each with a prize of 5 million won, were given to Ku Byung-mo, Kim Ae-ran, Kim Yeon-su, Moon Ji-hyuk, Baek Su-rin, and Jeong Han-ah for their works that advanced to the finals.

The winning works will be included in the "2022 Kim Seung-ok Literary Award Anthology," which will be published next month.

The Kim Seung-ok Literary Award was established in 2013 to honor the literary spirit of Kim Seung-ok, one of the representative novelists of the 1960s. Since 2019, it has been organized by Munhakdongne with support from Suncheon City, Jeollanam-do.

This year, the Munhakdongne Newcomer Award was given to poet Lee Young-eun (for "Polyimide Film" and four other poems) and novelist Seo Go-eun (for "Finding Hidden Pictures"). No winner was selected in the criticism category.

The winning works of the Newcomer Award will be published in the fall 2022 issue of the quarterly "Munhakdongne."