The Story of a 15-Year-Old Girl Who Faced the World Inspired by Seo Taiji's Song "Ultraman-iya"

The 5th Nexus Short Novel Writer Award Grand Prize
Shin Bora's "For Ultraman"
A story of a 15-year-old girl who dreams of becoming Ultraman
to confront an unfair world
"Unanimously selected for the grand prize... No excellence award given"

"It is a novel distinguished by its calm prose, chilling scenes, and moments that evoke laughter. (...) It serves both as a voice for and a path to understanding the 'outsiders' of our time who go unrecognized."

On the 15th, at a restaurant in Jung-gu, Seoul, Shin Bora, the grand prize-winning author of the Nexus 'Short Story Writer Award,' is speaking at the press conference for the award ceremony. Nexus

This is the judges' comment on "For Ultraman," the grand prize-winning work by Shin Bora in the fifth annual Nexus Short Novel Writer Award. At a press conference held on the 15th at a restaurant in Jung-gu, Seoul, literary critic and Hanyang University professor Yoo Seongho, who chaired the judging panel, stated, "Over 400 works were submitted for this fifth edition. Many of them reflected the trends of our era." He added, "The judges unanimously selected Shin Bora's 'For Ultraman' as the winner."

The book takes inspiration from the song "Ultraman-iya," released by Seo Taiji in September 2000 upon his comeback. In the story, the protagonist Wooju, a 15-year-old girl, wishes to become Ultraman, clad in strong armor, after her father?a truck driver?dies in a collision with a foreign car. Despite her father's innocence, the blame is unjustly placed on him while the other party's fault is overlooked. The novel follows Wooju as she believes she has become Ultraman in front of her mother's corpse and fearlessly confronts the world. However, reality proves to be harsh. By the story's end, Wooju is faced with a chilling and cold reality.

Novelist Pyun Hye-young, who participated in the judging, commented, "This novel is filled with harsh metaphors about the cost of growing up. Growth is cruel," and added, "Most of us only realize, after giving everything of ourselves, that there is no Ultraman in our lives and that the only true companion we have is ourselves."

Novelist An Boyun praised the work, saying, "Only those who have been alone for a long time can recognize the loneliness of others. This is a story about discovery." She continued, "How could one turn away from a novel that says the act of pushing oneself into a hole is not to hide, but to be pulled out?"

Shin Bora, born in 1994 and originally from Daegu, made her literary debut in 2023 with the short story "Wheel Alignment" in the Kyunghyang Shinmun New Year's Literary Contest. Since then, she has published several short stories, and with her first full-length novel "For Ultraman," she won the 5th Nexus Short Novel Writer Award.