All prizes South Korea
이상문학상
South Korea · Since 1977 · For books in Korean
Awarded once a year by the publisher Munhak Sasang to the best short story or novella in Korean published the year before. The jury's other picks (excellence prizes, called recommended works in the early 2000s) appear with the winner in an annual anthology and are listed here as the shortlist. There was no award in 2020, after writers refused it in protest, and the 2026 prize covered stories published up to September 2025.
The publisher Munhak Sasang founded the prize in 1977 in memory of the writer Yi Sang, who died young. It considers novellas and short stories that appeared in literary and other magazines during the previous year. The first winner was Kim Seung-ok. Later winners include Yi Mun-yol in 1987 and Han Kang in 2005, for Mongolian Mark, published in English as part of The Vegetarian. In 2020 Kim Keum-hee, Choi Eun-young and Lee Ki-ho turned down their prizes over the contract: the grand prize winner had to transfer the story's copyright to the publisher for three years and could not make it the title story of their own collection. A past winner, Yun I-hyeong, announced she would stop writing in protest. The publisher apologised and dropped the clause. From 2021 it made its judges and their evaluations public and raised the grand prize from 35 million to 50 million won.
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Yi Sang 2011 · Excellence prize
아무도 돌아오지 않는 밤 · Amudo doraoji anneun bam
Kim Soom · 36 when first published
Short story · 135 pages
AI-generated summary:A woman who shares her home with her elderly father-in-law, and can hardly bear even to eat with him, sits up one night waiting for him, for her husband and for a neighbour from flat 202, and nobody comes home.
Yi Sang 2010 · Excellence prize
무종 · Mujong
Bae Suah · 44 when first published
Short story · 212 pages
AI-generated summary:On a strange night the narrator goes looking for the Mujong tower alongside a man who collects model planes, and the search drifts into memories of hunting for rooms to rent all over Europe until dream and waking blur.
Yi Sang 2010 · Excellence prize
통조림공장 · Tongjorim gongjang
Pyun Hye-young · 37 when first published
Short story · 103 pages
AI-generated summary:At a canning factory that has run like clockwork for decades, people vanish without a sound, as if sealed into tins themselves, while the production line carries on unchanged.
Yi Sang 2009 · Excellence prize
두 번째 왈츠 · Du beonjjae walcheu
Jeon Sungtae · 39 when first published
Short story · 220 pages
AI-generated summary:In Mongolia, Nyama has carried since socialist times the role of a national emblem, 'the woman of the fatherland', and her life opens onto the country's past and present.
Yi Sang 2009 · Excellence prize
봄날 오후, 과부 셋 · Bomnal ohu, gwabu set
Jeong Ji-a · 43 when first published
Short story · 93 pages
AI-generated summary:Eiko, Haruko and Sadako, three widows past eighty who have leaned on one another like sisters all their lives, set out together on a spring afternoon.
Yi Sang 2009 · Excellence prize
그리고, 축제 · Geurigo, chukje
Lee Hye-kyung · 48 when first published
Short story · 114 pages
AI-generated summary:Separated from her patient husband since a childhood sexual assault came back to haunt her, Kang Ji-seon goes to Indonesia on a reporting trip, among people still living with the Bali bombings.
Yi Sang 2008 · Excellence prize
목신의 어떤 오후 · Moksinui eotteon ohu
Jung Young-moon · 42 when first published
Short story · 294 pages
AI-generated summary:Three people picnic on open ground beside a lake, a pipe-smoking man, his cousin and the narrator who lives with her, and go over stories they all know while crows hang about and rain clouds gather.
Yi Sang 2007 · Excellence prize
첫 번째 기념일 · Cheot beonjjae ginyeomil
Pyun Hye-young · 34 when first published
Short story · 192 pages
AI-generated summary:A delivery driver on the edge of a city dreams of a new life, having his ID photo taken every day and rewriting his CV, though he knows his record will never get him a job in the city.
Yi Sang 2006 · Winner
밤이여, 나뉘어라 · Bamiyeo, nanwieora
Jung Mi-kyung · 45 when first published
Short story · 219 pages
AI-generated summary:A film director who has measured his whole life against a brilliant friend finds that friend ruined, and tries to wipe the sight from his memory.
Yi Sang 2005 · Winner
몽고반점 · Monggo banjeom
Han Kang · 34 when first published
Short story · 183 pages · Family
AI-generated summary:A video artist becomes obsessed with his sister-in-law, who has stopped eating meat, after his wife mentions that she still has a Mongolian spot on her buttock, and asks her to model for his work.
Yi Sang 2004 · Excellence prize
그림자 아이 · Geurimja ai
Ha Seong-nan · 36 when first published
Short story · 350 pages
AI-generated summary:His memory wiped out by an accident, a man lives in a sanatorium; his family's visits bring nothing back, and instead he grows fixated on a deserted bike fitted with a child's seat that stands in view of his window.
Yi Sang 2004 · Excellence prize
발칸의 장미를 내게 주었네 · Balkanui jangmireul naege jueonne
Jung Mi-kyung · 43 when first published
Short story · 130 pages
AI-generated summary:With his wife and children sent off to America, a lonely man starts an affair with Jaei, a nurse who lives one floor away from him, on the understanding that neither of them will ask too much of the other.
Yi Sang 2003 · Excellence prize
자전소설 · Jajeon soseol
Ha Seong-nan · 35 when first published
Short story · 350 pages