Winners Announced for the 17th Mokpo Literary Awards
Shinwoo Yoon’s "The Bird at Midnight" Wins Hwa-seong Park Novel Award
Insoon Kim and Bonghee Lee Also Honored for Poetry and Children’s Literature
Mokpo City in South Jeolla Province has announced the winners of the 17th Mokpo Literary Awards, an event held to honor the legacy of writers who have left a significant mark on Korean literary history, and to discover and nurture local literary talent.
According to the city on August 26, this year’s contest was held throughout the month of May, with a total prize pool of 60 million won. Awards included the Hwa-seong Park Novel Award (for full-length novels) and the Mokpo Writer Award (Grand Prize and Work Prize). The contest drew significant attention, with over 230 entries submitted from across the country.
The Hwa-seong Park Novel Award, named after Park Hwaseong, a native of Mokpo and Korea’s first female novelist, was awarded to Shinwoo Yoon (from Gyeonggi Province) for the full-length novel "The Bird at Midnight."
Shinwoo Yoon will receive a prize of 50 million won, and the novel is scheduled to be published as a standalone book.
The Grand Prize for the Mokpo Writer Award went to Insoon Kim (from Muan County, South Jeolla Province) for the poetry collection "Today, I Saw Hope in You," while the Work Prize was awarded to Bonghee Lee (from Gyeonggi Province) for the children’s literature piece "The Villain Is a Big Hit." The Grand Prize and Work Prize winners will receive 6 million won and 4 million won, respectively.
The awards ceremony will take place during the opening of the Mokpo Alleyway Literary Festival on October 18 in the Bukgyo-dong area. The winning works will be unveiled for the first time at the festival and will subsequently be available to readers at bookstores nationwide, both online and offline.
A city official stated, "We hope that the Mokpo Literary Award winners will grow into world-renowned authors," adding, "We will continue to discover and nurture writers to uphold Mokpo’s literary reputation."
Meanwhile, the Mokpo Alleyway Literary Festival will be held on October 18-19 in the Bukgyo-dong area, featuring a variety of programs such as alleyway exhibitions, literary talks, and an independent bookstore fair to welcome citizens and visitors alike.
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