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Park Kyong-ni Prize

ぱくきょんにぶんがくしょう

International literary award based in Korea, established in 2011 in memory of Park Kyong-ni.

International Literary AwardKorean Literary Award
Established
2011
Organizer
Toji Foundation of Culture
Category
Literature and General Literary Arts
Selection Method
Recommendation
Target
Professional
Frequency
1 per year
Announcement Period
around September
Status
Active

Description

International literary award established and sponsored by Toji Foundation of Culture. Created in 2011 to honor the achievements of Park Kyong-ni, with a prize of 100,000 USD, it is one of the world's highest-paying literary awards. Recipients are evaluated based on their international literary achievements and contributions.

Prize

Main Prize
Prize money and honor ($100,000 prize money)
Cash Prize
100,000 USD
  • International recognition and honor
  • Publicity and press related to Toji Foundation

Selection

Selection Process

Candidate Selection
Judges Selection committee (international judging committee) appointed by Toji Foundation
Announcement Candidates selected internally by Toji Foundation
Final Selection and Winner Determination
Judges International judging committee (composed of writers, critics, etc.)
Announcement Officially announced by Toji Foundation and published through various media

Criteria

  • Literary achievements and artistic quality of works
  • International influence and translation potential
  • Lifetime achievements and contributions as a writer

Application Tips

Dos

  • 作品の国際的意義や翻訳可能性を明確にする
  • 過去の業績や代表作を整理して提示する(受賞歴や翻訳歴など)
  • 推薦・ノミネーションの場合は推薦者のプロフィールを詳述する

Don''ts

  • 形式や応募要件を守らない(※公募情報が公開されていない場合は財団の案内を確認)
  • 自薦/重複提出が禁止されている場合にそれを行う

From Judges

  • 文学性・独創性・持続的な業績を重視する
  • 国際的な視点や翻訳による普遍性が評価されやすい

Related Awards

  • Nobel Prize in Literature
  • International Booker Prize
  • Man Booker International Prize
  • Neustadt International Prize for Literature
  • Major literary awards in Korea (e.g., Yi Sang Literary Award, etc.)

Official Resources

http://www.tojicf.org

Past Winners

Sylvie Germain しるゔぃ じぇるまん Winner

A novel tracing a century of the Peniel family while weaving together myth and fantasy. Centered on Victor-Flandrin Péniel, it follows how war, violence, love, and loss pass from one generation to the next, turning historical devastation into a story of inheritance and legend.

A family's century-long history rises out of war memory and mythic imagination.

263 pages
family sagamythic imaginationwar memoryliterary fantasyintergenerational inheritanceloss
Christoph Ransmayr くりすとふ らんすまいやー Winner

An allegorical novel grounded in Ovid's Metamorphoses, following a journey through a ruined world in search of meaning, language, and memory. It is lyrical, symbolic, and steeped in myth.

246 pages
memorylossjourneymyth
Amin Maalouf あみん まあるーふ Winner

A historical novel set amid Lebanon’s troubled past, weaving myth, loyalty, and political tension around the disappearance of a young man.

A historical novel set amid Lebanon’s troubled past, weaving…

288 pages
historical fictionLebanonmythpoliticsdisappearance
Yun Heunggil ゆん・ふんぎる Winner
Ismail Kadare いすまいる・かだれ Winner

After the Second World War, a foreign general and a priest travel through Albania to recover the bones of fallen soldiers. Their mission becomes an allegory of war memory, guilt, humiliation, and the persistence of violence after battle has ended.

What is unearthed is not only bone, but memory and hostility left by war.

272 pages
memory of warallegoryAlbaniarecovering remainsguilt and loss
Richard Ford りちゃーど・ふぉーど Winner

Frank Bascombe, a middle-aged man navigating life after divorce, spends the days around Independence Day while facing family strain, work, and a deep sense of drift. The novel intertwines one man’s reinvention with a broader portrait of American life.

With a quiet, exacting style, it follows the fractures of family life and the faint feel of hope.

464 pages
familydivorcemidlife crisisAmerican societyreinvention
A. S. Byatt (Antonia Susan Duffy, née Drabble) えーえす・ばいあっと Winner

A literary mystery that intertwines two scholars, Victorian poets, romance, scholarship, possession, and discovery.

Letters from the past slowly transform the lives of the scholars in the present.

624 pages
literary mysteryromancescholarshipVictorian literature
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o んぐぎ・わ・てぃおんご Winner

A Grain of Wheat is a multi-voiced novel set in a Kenyan village on the eve of independence, exploring betrayal, atonement, and collective memory. It intertwines liberation from colonial rule with the weight of individual choice and stands as a key work of African liberation literature.

Betrayal and atonement meet in Kenya on the eve of independence.

272 pages
colonialism and liberationbetrayal and atonementcommunityhistory and memory
Amos Oz あもす・おず Winner

The memoir intertwines Oz’s childhood memories, family history, and the cultural and political landscape of Israel.

A memoir of childhood, family, and the making of a writer in Israel.

544 pages
memoirfamily historyIsraelmemory
Bernhard Schlink べるんはると・しゅりんく Winner

Around the relationship between fifteen-year-old Michael and Hanna, love, secrecy, judgment, and guilt gather. The novel looks steadily at memory in postwar Germany.

Love and secrecy become entwined with the memory of postwar Germany.

224 pages
love and secrecypostwar Germanymemoryguilt
Marilynne Robinson まりりん・ろびんそん Winner

An intimate novel in the form of a father's letter to his son, quietly exploring family history, faith, forgiveness, and the passage of time.

389 pages
religion and faithfamily historymemoryAmerican Midwest
Lyudmila Ulitskaya りゅどみら・うりつかや Winner

A novel that follows a Jewish man through the upheavals of the 20th century and turns questions of faith, memory, identity, and conscience into a humanistic inquiry.

416 pages
religion and faithmemory and historyidentityhumanity
Choi In-hoon ちぇ・いんふん Winner

A Korean modernist novel about a young man torn between idealism and reality in a divided society, using political conflict to probe freedom, alienation, and loss.

153 pages
divisionpolitics and the individualalienationpostwar Korea