Prize: 10 Million KRW for Fiction, 5 Million KRW for Poetry and Criticism
Awards Ceremony Scheduled for Late November
On August 12, Changbi announced that poet Sungin Bang, novelist Sora Kim, and critic Mijin Lee have been selected as the winners of the Changbi New Writer Award.
2025 Changbi New Writer Award Winners. From the left in the photo: poet Sungin Bang, critic Mijin Lee, critic Sora Kim. Changbi
The Changbi New Writer Award is a literary prize established by Changbi to discover new, talented writers who will lead the literary world.
In the poetry category, Sungin Bang was honored for his collection, including "Ghost of Grass" and four other poems. The judging panel commented, "His distinctive poetic methodology, which momentarily grasps and then releases meaning through the elegant use of language, was his greatest strength."
Regarding Sora Kim's "The Child Who Flies Low," which won in the fiction category, the judges said, "The fantasy premise of a child with supernatural powers may feel familiar. However, it is noteworthy that the emotional bond through which the characters save each other is not an act of self-sacrifice for others, but rather stems entirely from their own sense of lack and urgent need." The novel tells the story of a friendship between a woman who has locked herself in a rooftop room and an adolescent exposed to school violence due to parental neglect.
For the criticism category, Mijin Lee's "'We' as Reality: On the Realism of 'International of Two People'" was praised for "offering a fresh approach to realism, showing how the utopian impulse in fiction is historicized through the embodiment of affective language, accompanied by lively insights into the era and the work."
The prize money is 10 million KRW for fiction, and 5 million KRW each for poetry and criticism. The awards ceremony is scheduled for late November. Details of the judging process, judges' comments, and acceptance speeches will be published in the fall issue of "Creation and Criticism."
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