Lee Seon-ok Wins Grand Prize at the 47th Simsang Literary Contest.. Successive Achievements from Oh Young-soo Literary Museum Alumni

【Financial News Ulsan=Choi Soo-sang Reporter】 Lee Seon-ok, an essayist from the Oh Young-soo Literary Museum Nanggye Literary University, was selected as the grand prize winner at the 47th Simsang Beach Poet School Literary Contest with her work 'Hajitnal'. At the same time, she achieved the feat of debuting by winning the Simsang New Literary Award with works such as 'Old House' and 'Climbing Chisulryeong Again'.
According to the Oh Young-soo Literary Museum on the 21st, the 47th Simsang Beach Poet School Literary Contest was held on July 9-10 at the Seocho Training Center in Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province.
'Simsang' is a monthly poetry magazine founded in 1973 by poet Park Mok-wol, and it is the oldest poetry magazine in Korea with over 50 years of history. The Simsang Beach Poet School, the original beach poet school in Korea, was first held in 1979 in Guryongpo, Pohang, and this year marks its 47th event.
Lee Seon-ok, who is also an invited artist at the Korea Calligraphy Exhibition, is from Ulsan and has won the Hyundai Essay Newcomer Award in 2017, the second prize at the Dunchon Literary Contest, the Maewoondang Lee Jo-nyeon Literary Contest, and the Gyeongbuk Literary Phenomenon Contest. After retiring as an elementary school principal, she is devoted to creative activities.
In her acceptance speech, Lee Seon-ok said, “During my high school days, when I won second prize in the poetry section at the Ulsan Industrial Festival Literary Contest, I was briefly proud, thinking I had a seed of poetry in me,” and added, “After retiring, I knocked on the door of a poetry writing class, but my brain was already rusty and I was exhausted from going in circles. There were countless times I wanted to give up writing poetry.”
However, she stated, “The vitality of the poetry I cherished was persistent, and the goddess of fate opened the way for that seed to sprout.”

Along with this, Kim Eun-young from the Nanggye Literary University Novel Class won the lower grade children's story section in the recent 'Changbi Children's' contest with her work 'Please Cheer for the Cabbage'.
The judges praised the lower grade children's story prize-winning work 'Please Cheer for the Cabbage' as “a work full of vigor and originality.” The winning work will be published by Changbi in 2026, and the award ceremony will be held at the end of February next year. The prize money is 20 million won.



ulsan@fnnews.com Choi Soo-sang Reporter