All prizes South Korea
대산문학상
South Korea · Since 1993 · For books in Korean
Awarded each November by the Daesan Foundation, set up by the insurer Kyobo Life, in poetry, fiction, drama, criticism and translation. This site lists the winners of the fiction category: the best book of Korean fiction from roughly the previous year, limited to novels since 2008.
Kyobo Life's founder, Shin Yong-ho, established the awards in 1993 to support Korean literature and help it reach readers abroad. Poetry, fiction and translation are awarded every year; drama and criticism alternate, each every other year. Judges chosen by the foundation mainly consider books published between August of the previous year and July of the award year. The translation prize rotates among English, French, German and Spanish. Winners are announced in November at a press conference in Seoul. Each receives 50 million won, and the winning poetry, fiction and drama are considered for translation and publication abroad. The foundation also gives grants to writers and translators; Lee Ki-ho, the 2025 fiction winner, received one in 2003. The first fiction winner was Yi Seung-u. Later ones include Park Wan-suh, Hwang Sok-yong for The Guest (2001), Kim Hoon for Namhansanseong (2007) and Choi Eun-young for Bright Night (2021).
Showing 7 of 26 books. 19 aren’t in English yet: show all.
Daesan 2022 · Winner
작별하지 않는다 · Jakbyeolhaji anneunda
Han Kang · 51 when first published
Novel · 272 pages · Historical, War
AI-generated summary:A novelist haunted by a dream of black logs standing like gravestones in a snowy field gets an urgent call from a friend in hospital, who begs her to go to her house on Jeju that very day to save the bird left there alone.
Also: Warwick Prize 2025 shortlist
Daesan 2020 · Winner
9번의 일 · 9beonui il
Kim Hye-jin · 36 when first published
Novel · 208 pages
AI-generated summary:An installation technician at a telecom company refuses to take the voluntary redundancy he is pushed towards and stays on, only to be moved from post to post with nothing real to do, until he is just No. 9.
Daesan 2019 · Winner
단순한 진심 · Dansunhan jinsim
Cho Haejin · 43 when first published
Novel · 240 pages · Migration, Family
AI-generated summary:Nana, a Korean-born playwright adopted to France, learns she is pregnant just as a Korean student asks to make a film about the name she had before her adoption, and travels to Seoul to look for where she came from.
Daesan 2015 · Winner
계속해보겠습니다 · Gyesokaebogetseumnida
Hwang Jungeun · 38 when first published
Novel · Family
AI-generated summary:Two sisters, Sora and Nana, grow up wary of love beside a mother who fell apart when their father died in an accident at work. When Nana becomes pregnant, the cold, orderly life the sisters have built begins to give way.
Daesan 2012 · Winner
어떤 작위의 세계 · Eotteon jagwiui segye
Jung Young-moon · 46 when first published
Novel · 163 pages · Autofiction
AI-generated summary:Spending a spring and summer in San Francisco, a writer remembers an earlier visit to California, when he drank tequila with a former girlfriend and her new partner, took potshots at agaves and stayed on alone for the fog.
Daesan 2011 · Winner
이별하는 골짜기 · Ibyeolhaneun goljjagi
Lim Chul-woo · 56 when first published
Novel · 216 pages
AI-generated summary:At Byeoreogok, a small country railway halt about to disappear, people who refuse to forget a wounded past each tell their story, one after another, across the four seasons.
Daesan 2001 · Winner
손님 · Sonnim
Hwang Sok-yong · 58 when first published
Novel · 240 pages · Historical, War
AI-generated summary:Built on the twelve stages of a Hwanghae shaman rite for the dead, the novel goes back to the 1950 massacre in Sincheon, North Korea, where two creeds brought in from outside, Christianity and Marxism, turned villagers against one another.