How could Shin Eun-mi’s book become an `excellent book`?

On her way to prosecutors’ investigation on the controversial “talk concert” tour, Shin Eun-mi, a Korean-American woman, said, "What I said (at Talk Concert) was all written in my book “A Korean-American Woman Goes to North Korea,” which was selected as an excellent literary book of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry last year." Generally, excellent books selected by the ministry are excellent academic and cultural books. Excellent literary books, however, are somewhat different. While the purpose of excellent academic and cultural books is to promote the publication of good books, the purpose of excellent literary books is to promote reading.

The selection of excellent literary books has been made by the Korea Library Association until 2012. As the association was criticized for its selecting easy-to-read books given the library utilization rate, the selection right was given to the Book Culture Foundation, a civic group, last year. The civic group’s website introduces mostly left-leaning groups such as Cultural Action, the Writers` Association of Korea, Professors for Democracy, and Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union.

Excellent literary books are selected in five categories, and Shin’s book was selected in the essay category. Hwang Gwang-soo, a literary critic, headed the essay category of the selection committee. He also led the cultural policy committee of the Writers Association of Korea and the Korean Literature Institute. Other nine members of the selection committee include Kang Byeong-cheol, a former CEO of Jaeum and Moeum, a publishing house. When Kang had to resign from his position for hoarding Hwang Seok-young’s books last year, Hwang, an editor at the publishing house, cleaned up the mess.

Shin’s book could not have been selected unless the Book Culture Foundation had taken the chance to select excellent literary books. Starting this year, the selection of excellent literary books is carried out by the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea, which selects excellent academic and culture books. Nevertheless, it is nonsense to choose excellent literary books separately because literature is already part of the 11 categories of excellent academic books and excellent cultural books. If there are too many excellent books, the standard of excellence can hardly be maintained. Perhaps, the Culture Ministry is selecting too many books in the name of "excellence."