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Actor and novelist Cha In-pyo, winner of the Emerging Writer Award at the 2025 Hwang Sun-won Literary Awards. / Haegyeolchaek

Actor and novelist Cha In-pyo has won the Emerging Writer Award at the 2025 Hwang Sun-won Literary Awards for his novel “Mermaid Hunt.”

The Hwang Sun-won Memorial Society announced the winners of the 14th annual awards on August 1, naming Cha alongside novelist Joo Soo-ja for “In Search of the Novel Haeryebon” and poet Kim Gu-seul for “Island of Shadows.”

Cha’s novel “Mermaid Hunt,” published in 2022, tells the story of a quest for mermaid oil believed to grant a thousand years of life. The work, praised for its exploration of human greed and primal desires, has been lauded for building a unique Korean-style fantasy grounded in local folklore and geography.

On his social media, Cha wrote, “I published my first novel at 42, and now, at 58, I’m receiving an emerging writer award. Life feels like a long novel—you only know the ending if you read to the end. I see this not as praise for what I’ve written but as encouragement to keep writing better. I am deeply grateful to the judges and readers.”

His wife, actress Shin Ae-ra, also celebrated the news online, saying, “He would disappear every day with his bag to write, then come home at 5 p.m. saying he was hungry—and now he’s won such an overwhelming award. Dreams really shouldn’t be abandoned; you never know when they’ll come true.”

The award ceremony for the 14th Hwang Sun-won Literary Awards will be held on September 12 at Sonagi Village in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, home to the Hwang Sun-won Literature Center.