6th Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award Grand Prize 'Yan Lianke', Special Prize 'Jang Marie' Selected

[Seoul District News] Eunpyeong-gu Selects Chinese 'Sasa' Author Yan Lianke for Grand Prize; Award-Winning Author Press Conference on 28th, Ceremony and 'Meeting with Grand Prize Winner' on 29th & October 6th '6th Special Award Winner Meeting'

Main Award Winner Yeorenkeo

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Eunpyeong-gu (Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) held the representative unification cultural event and international literary award, the ‘6th Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award,’ selecting Chinese writer Yan Lianke for the main prize and writer Jang Mari for the special prize.

The press conference will be held on the 28th, with the award ceremony and side events taking place on October 29.

Now in its 6th year, the ‘Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award’ was established by Eunpyeong-gu in 2017 to honor the literary activities and spirit of hope for unification of the late writer Lee Ho-cheol, a representative figure in unification literature who worked in Bulgwang-dong, Eunpyeong-gu for over 50 years.

The 6th awardees were selected through fair and thorough evaluations conducted over nine sessions from January to June this year by the Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award Steering Committee and the main prize selection committee, composed of experts from literature, academia, and media.

The 6th main prize winner, Yan Lianke, is a leading Chinese novelist known for resisting state and systemic violence, making fundamental and universal human values the main themes of his work, and possessing a spirit that does not yield to any sanctions or disadvantages. His major work, "The Four Books," is a masterpiece depicting human figures during the Cultural Revolution. It restores the memories and records of the people who were banned and denied under the name of ‘revolutionizing culture’ through literary language, reflecting the author’s effort to heal historical wounds. This aligns most closely with the truth of resistance that writer Lee Ho-cheol sought, which is why he was selected for the main prize.

The 6th special prize winner, Jang Mari, expressed social issues and shadows through her works based on very concrete awareness of problems and thorough research. Her major work, "Siberian Strangers," deals with a rare recent theme that asks and makes readers think about what it means to be human. It interestingly portrays the ideals and struggles for survival of young subjects in a divided country, as well as existential anguish beyond ideology. She was selected for the special prize for broadening the imaginative horizon of Korean literature while expressing hope blossoming from wounds.

Special Award Winner Jang Mari

The press conference will be held at 2:30 PM on the 28th at the 19th-floor press conference room of the Korea Press Center. The award ceremony will take place the next day at 10 AM at the Jingwansa Korean Culture Experience Center, followed by a meeting with the main prize-winning author at 2 PM. The meeting with the special prize-winning author is scheduled for 3 PM on October 6 at the Jung-sang Information Library. For inquiries about the event, please contact the Culture and Tourism Division of Eunpyeong-gu Office.

Past winners of the Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award include ▲2017 1st main prize: Korean-Japanese Kim Seok-beom for "Hwasando," special prize: Kim Soom for "One Person" ▲2018 2nd main prize: Palestinian Sahar Khalifa for "Prickly Cactus," special prize: Song Kyung-dong for "I Am Not Korean" ▲2019 3rd main prize: Somali Nuruddin Farah for "Maps," special prize: Kim Jong-kwang for "Let's Go Play" ▲2020 4th main prize: Indian Arundhati Roy for "The God of Small Things," special prize: Kim Hye-jin for "Nine Times Work" ▲2021 5th main prize: German Jenny Erpenbeck for "When All Evenings Are Dark," special prize: Shim Yoon-kyung for "Eternal Legacy."

Kim Mi-kyung, Mayor of Eunpyeong-gu, said, “I hope the values of peace and harmony will spread around us through the Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award,” adding, “We will do our best to develop the award as a pillar supporting stable creative activities for writers. We ask for your continued support in the future.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.