"There Is a Reason for Living Alone"... Songpa-gu Publishes Essay Collection on Single-Person Households

Songpa-gu 1-Person Household Support Center Conducts 'Book Publishing Project'... Stories of 11 Single-Person Households Collected Over 3 Months from April, Book Published in September... First Among Seoul 1-Person Household Support Centers
Authors Participate in Book Talk Through Talent Donation... Sharing Wise Solo Living Tips and Promoting Relationship Diversity

“This is a very personal story of an ordinary person, an ordinary woman, an extremely ordinary person in her forties living through small everyday moments alone, hoping to offer some comfort to those like me who are living alone in the late adolescence of life.”

This is the opening statement of the single-person household essay collection published by the Songpa-gu 1-Person Household Support Center on September 25.

Songpa-gu (Mayor Seo Gang-seok) announced on the 17th that it has published "There Is a Reason for Living Alone," which contains the stories of 11 participants in the Songpa-gu 1-Person Household Support Center’s (hereafter Center) ‘Book Publishing Project.’

Among Seoul’s 1-Person Household Support Centers, Songpa-gu is the first to have an educational program that resulted in an actual book publication.

The Center planned the ‘Book Publishing Project’ this year with the goal of publishing a book, following the positive response to last year’s ‘Practical Book Writing Education.’ The program was held every Monday evening for two hours from April 29 to July 22 at the Songpa-gu 1-Person Household Support Center (Geoyeo-dong).

Yu Young-taek, CEO of a publishing company based in Songpa, served as the instructor. The course covered the entire process of publishing a book, including ▲data organization methods ▲choosing a topic ▲writing the main text ▲preparing a publishing proposal.

The authors are 11 men and women living alone in Seoul. Their ages range from late 20s to early 50s. They come from diverse professional backgrounds such as IT, design, and healthcare. Among them, six are residents of Songpa-gu.

The book contains a variety of stories about their experiences and feelings while living alone. Readers can see the unique daily lives of ordinary neighbors, including recipes for home-cooked meals eaten alone, solo travel, bonding with pets, and the value of family discovered through living alone.

The district office stated that this would be a great opportunity to look into and empathize with the very private lives of single-person households in our society.

Recently, the authors have continued to meet readers through book talks. On October 22, they participated as volunteers at the invitation of the Pyeongtaek City Cultural Foundation in Gyeonggi Province, and on the 7th of this month, they shared their publishing process and experiences of living alone at the Songpa-gu 1-Person Household Support Center.

Author Lee Ji-won (45, Ogeum-dong) said, “I thought that after turning forty, I would gain some stability in life and be able to define ‘myself.’ I am still a single-person household in my forties, wandering in search of answers on how to live, but I live by gradually challenging myself with the motto of ‘expanding knowledge and experience.’”

Seo Gang-seok, Mayor of Songpa-gu, said, “According to Statistics Korea, it is projected that four out of ten households in our country will be single-person households in 30 years. Songpa-gu will continue to support residents in creating new forms of relationships and communication that fit the changing times.”

All programs at the Songpa-gu 1-Person Household Support Center are open to any single-person household within the Seoul metropolitan area. They range from educational and leisure programs such as emotional psychological counseling, organizing and storage, self-home repair, and happy meals to isolation prevention. For more details, please contact the Center.