[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Fiction Grand Prize winner Breanna Hundley

For Breanna Hundley, the horror in a story about a woman struggling to recover her rental deposit felt close to home. Having experienced a deposit scare while living in Seoul, the American translator was drawn to Cho Ye-eun’s “How to Get Your Deposit Back,” which transforms an ordinary financial worry into something frightening. Her English translation won the fiction Grand Prize in the 57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards, organized by The Korea Times. The prize is awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. “I selected ‘How to Get Your Deposit Back’ because I found it fascinating that Cho Ye-eun could take something as mundane as a security deposit and turn it into a horror story,” Hundley said in a written interview. “She has a particular talent for writing scenes so vividly that they almost feel cinematic.” Hundley saw the story’s housing anxiety as something readers across borders could recognize. She also wanted to convey its shifting emotions, from stress and frustration to fear and excitement. “Rather than simply telling readers how th