First Round Results of the Reader Vote for the Kim Hak-cheol Literature Award Grand Prize and Information on the Final Round of Voting

Hello. This is Asia Publishing. We are pleased to announce the results of the first round of reader voting for the Kim Hak-cheol Literary Award Grand Prize, which took place from September 1 to 7, 2026. Since no work received a majority of the votes in the first round, a final round of voting will be held between the top two works.

■ Finalists

○ Hwang Jeong-eun, A Day Without Problems ○ Jeon Chun-hwa, Welcome to Villa

■ First-Round Voting Results

▷ Voters (70 votes total) 1st Place: Jeon Chun-hwa, Welcome to Villa – 45.71% 2nd Place: Hwang Jeong-eun, A Problem-Free Day 32.86% 3rd Place: Choi Jin-young, Uluru—Kata Tjuta 21.43%

▷ Funders (Total 172 votes) 1st Place: Hwang Jeong-eun, A Problem-Free Day 41.28% 2nd Place: Jeon Chun-hwa, Welcome to Villa 39.53% 3rd Place: Choi Jin-young, Uluru—Kata Tjuta 19.19%

No work received a majority of votes from either group, and even after applying weighting to the combined results, the final rankings—Jeon Chun-hwa, Hwang Jeong-eun, and Choi Jin-young—still showed that no single work reached a majority. Accordingly, a runoff vote will be held between the top two works.

■ Calculation Method

The final rankings were determined by applying a weighting of 60 percent for the support team and 40 percent for funding participants. Since the number of participants in the two groups differs, we calculated the percentage of votes within each group rather than the absolute number of votes, and then combined the results after applying the respective weights.

■ Final Round Voting Information

○ Period: September 11, 2026 (Fri) – September 18, 2026 (Fri) ○ Eligible Works: Hwang Jeong-eun, A Day Without Problems; Jeon Chun-hwa, Welcome to Villa ○ Method: Weighted aggregation (60% from the support team, 40% from funding participants), identical to the first round

Since only these two works are in the running, the winner will be determined by a majority vote in the final round. Voting links and participation instructions will be sent individually via text message to all eligible voters. We extend our deepest gratitude to all readers who participated in the first round of voting.

Asia Book Publishing · Kim Hak-cheol Literary Award Support Team