The 31st Daesan Literary Award... Shin Chang-jae Chairman "Growing Global Citizens Through Literature"

Novelist Hyeon Gi-yeong and Poet Kim Gi-yeong Among Award Recipients

"Daesan Cultural Foundation's mission is to provide diverse literary experiences to help readers grow into global citizens."

According to Kyobo Life Insurance on the 26th, Shin Chang-jae, Chairman of Daesan Cultural Foundation (also CEO and Chairman of the Board of Kyobo Life Insurance), emphasized the social role of the Daesan Cultural Foundation at the 31st Daesan Literary Awards ceremony held on the 23rd at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul.

Daesan Cultural Foundation is the only private literary support foundation established in 1992 with a donation from Kyobo Life Insurance, following the wishes of the late Daesan Shin Yong-ho, founder of Kyobo Life Insurance. Before joining Kyobo Life Insurance in 1996, Chairman Shin had been serving as a professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine and has led the foundation as its chairman for over 30 years since 1993.

The Daesan Literary Awards, established in 1993, is the largest comprehensive literary award in Korea aimed at contributing to the creation and globalization of Korean literature. This year’s winners were selected as follows: ▲ Poetry category "A Sickle as a Sword" (Kim Ki-taek) ▲ Novel category "Jeju Island Helper" (Hyun Ki-young) ▲ Play category "No Winner" (Lee Yang-gu) ▲ Translation category "Der Wal (The Whale)" (Matthias Augustin & Park Kyung-hee).

Each winner receives a prize of 50 million KRW per category and the Daesan Literary Award’s unique trophy, a bronze sculpture titled "Pine Tree" by sculptor Yang Hwa-seon. The winning works in poetry, novel, and play categories will be translated into major foreign languages through the foundation’s 2024 translation support program and published and introduced overseas.

Chairman Shin stated, "Last year, on the 30th anniversary of the foundation, we established the vision of being 'a cultural foundation that delivers the most precious literary experiences.' Since literature serves as a valuable nourishment to overcome the crises we face and grow into mature global citizens, we will focus on the value of literature as a pathway to understanding others and the world, and provide readers with diverse literary experiences."

Shin Chang-jae, Chairman of the Daesan Cultural Foundation (CEO and Chairman of the Board of Kyobo Life Insurance), is giving a greeting speech at the 31st Daesan Literary Awards ceremony held on the 23rd at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. (Photo by Kyobo Life Insurance)

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