Seoul's Eunpyeong-gu district has selected Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vasquez as the grand prize winner of the 10th Lee Ho-chul Tongillo Literary Award, district Mayor Kim Mi-kyung announced.
Writer Seo Su-jin was named the recipient of the special prize.
Now in its 10th year, the Lee Ho-chul Tongillo Literary Award is an international literary prize established by Eunpyeong-gu in 2017 to honor the literary legacy and spirit of the late Lee Ho-chul, a leading figure in Korean unification literature who spent more than 50 years writing in the district's Bulgwang-dong neighborhood.
This year's winners were determined through eight rounds of judging conducted from January through June by a grand prize selection committee and an operating committee composed of specialists from literature, academia, journalism and other fields.
Grand prize winner Vasquez has built a body of work that renders the political violence and inherited trauma of modern Colombian history through intricate narrative. His landmark novel "The Sound of Things Falling" (2011) made him the first Latin American author to win the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and "The Shape of the Ruins" (2015) was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.
The selection committee praised his literary achievement in reflecting on the wounds left by conflict and violence and in practicing an ethics of memory.
Special prize winner Seo Su-jin made her literary debut after winning the 25th Hankyoreh Literary Award for her novel "Korean Teacher." She has since published the short story collection "Gold Rush" and the novel "Even Without Being a Mother" (2025).
The operating committee said it selected Seo because her body of work — which raises major social questions around gender, class and the body within hierarchies of borders and capital — is expected to carry forward and expand the literary spirit of Lee Ho-chul.
The 10th Lee Ho-chul Tongillo Literary Award will open with a press conference at the Korea Press Center on Sept. 17. An awards ceremony will follow on Sept. 18 at the Lee Ho-chul Book Concert Hall, with a meet-and-greet with both the grand prize and special prize winners scheduled the same day.
"Through the Lee Ho-chul Tongillo Literary Award, we hope to broaden a cultural common ground of mutual understanding and solidarity that transcends division and borders," district Mayor Kim said. "We will continue to support writers so they can focus on their creative work with conviction."
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