7th Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award Grand Prize Winner Medoruma Shun

Eunpyeong-gu Holds the 7th Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award...Main Prize Awarded to ‘Medoruma Shun’, Special Prize to ‘Jin Eun-young’

Medoruma Shun, Representative Okinawan Literary Author, Selected for Main Prize

Press Conference for Awardees on September 11, Award Ceremony and ‘Meeting with Main Prize Winner’ on September 12

Side Events ‘2023 Symposium’ and ‘Meeting with Special Prize Winner’ Scheduled for October

Medoruma Shun of Okinawa

Eunpyeong-gu (Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) announced that it will hold the representative unification cultural event and international literary award, the ‘7th Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award.’

The district selected Medoruma Shun from Okinawa, Japan, as the main prize winner of the ‘7th Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award,’ and writer Jin Eun-young as the special prize winner. The press conference will be held on September 11, and the award ceremony and side events will take place on September 12.

Now in its seventh 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 Lee Ho-cheol, a representative unification literature writer who worked in Bulgwang-dong, Eunpyeong-gu for over 50 years, and to aim for a central role in future unification efforts.

The 7th 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 journalism.

The main prize winner of the 7th award, Medoruma Shun, is a practical intellectual who actively speaks out and acts on various social issues in Okinawa through novels, essays, critiques, and web blogs. Even after receiving the Akutagawa Prize, considered the most prestigious literary award in Japan, he has continuously opposed mainstream perspectives and realized his goals through ‘literary activism,’ making him one of the most notable non-Western writers of the 21st century.

He was selected for the main prize because his work criticizes the colonial discrimination and oppression of Okinawa, the issues surrounding the U.S. military presence, and the contradictions and absurdities of the power structure Okinawa faces, while striving for literary sublimation, aligning with the purpose of the Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award.

The special prize winner of the 7th award, Jin Eun-young, is a poet, philosopher, educator teaching literature and philosophy, and translator. Her poetry collections rearrange old and familiar daily life with sensory metaphors and vivid images, while addressing contemporary realities with philosophical reflection and poetic political consciousness.

Her major work, I Love You Like an Old Street, presents delicate metaphorical poetic beauty born from long contemplation and offers the poet’s unique reflections on the role of citizens through the spirit of the times centered on love and solidarity. She was selected for the special prize for her literary visualization of difficult and challenging issues by listening to voices and diverse life problems that are often overlooked in communities, beautifully accomplishing each in her own way.

Jin Eun-young, writer

The press conference will be held at 2:30 PM on September 11 at the 19th-floor press conference room of the Korea Press Center. The award ceremony will take place at 10 AM the following day at the Jingwansa Korean Culture Experience Center, followed by a ‘Meeting with the Main Prize Winner’ at 2 PM. The ‘Meeting with the Special Prize Winner’ is scheduled for October along with the newly introduced ‘2023 Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award Symposium’ at local cultural facilities. For inquiries about the event, please contact the Eunpyeong-gu Office Cultural Tourism Division.

Past winners of the Lee Ho-cheol Unification Road Literary Award include ▲2017 1st Main Prize: Korean-Japanese Kim Seok-beom ‘Volcano Island’, Special Prize: Kim Soom ‘One Person’ ▲2018 2nd Main Prize: Palestinian Sahar Khalifa ‘Prickly Cactus’, Special Prize: Song Kyung-dong ‘I Am Not Korean’ ▲2019 3rd Main Prize: Somali Nurdin Farah ‘Maps’, Special Prize: Kim Jong-kwang ‘Let’s Go Play’ ▲2020 4th Main Prize: Indian Arundhati Roy ‘The God of Small Things’, Special Prize: Kim Hye-jin ‘Nine Times Work’ ▲2021 5th Main Prize: German Jenny Erpenbeck ‘When All Evenings Fall’, Special Prize: Shim Yoon-kyung ‘Eternal Legacy’ ▲2022 6th Main Prize: Chinese Yan Lianke ‘Four Books’, Special Prize: Jang Marie ‘Strangers in Siberia’.

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

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