Safehouse competition winners release 'Mass Extinction'

“Mass Extinction”

By Jin Yu-young

Safehouse Korea is an organization that supports and promotes the talented writers of Korea. Through workshops and special projects, Safehouse brings together the community of creative writers and also gives them a chance to publish their work.

For the 143 individuals who completed Safehouse's creative workshop program, a competition was held from November through December 2018, on the theme of mass extinction. The five selected winners had their pieces published recently in an anthology titled, “Mass Extinction.”

This theme was chosen to highlight incidences of extinction that have happened throughout history, including the most recent fifth mass extinction in which 75% of the world's living organisms disappeared. As many scientists speculate that the world is currently undergoing a sixth mass extinction, this theme had great relevance and creative potential.

The winners of the competition were Siaran, Shim Neo-ul, Beom Yu-jin, Hae Do-yeon, and Kang Yu-ri. The writers' diverse backgrounds including engineering and psychology demonstrate that creative writing can be done by anyone with a vivid imagination.

Each of the writers had their own interpretation of extinction, and wrote a creative piece to depict the possible consequences of such a phenomenon. Therefore the book is not one continuous story, but is a compilation of five separate ones. The stories range from the consequences a mass extinction has on the underworld to an ancient empire that has wizards and sorcery.

For example, in the story “The number of jumps needed to end the world,” a video game developer tries to fix a bug in his game. Every time a player reaches a score of 65,536 the server shuts down. While fixing this issue, he discovers that this was actually a hidden message left by a former employee. The encrypted message along with rumors going around the office leads the developer to realize the biggest secret of all about the universe: an imminent mass extinction.

In another example, a young girl in Cambodia is an outcast among her peers. Therefore she isolates herself and prefers to spend time by the river. When one day her friend the dolphin brings up the topic of extinction and explains that if the human race continues to exist, the world will face another mass extinction, the girl goes back home to her mother and comes to understand this tragic fate.

This book has received praise for its creativity and effectiveness in delivering an important message to readers: if we do not take care of our planet, there will be severe consequences. Even though the sixth mass extinction might already be upon us, there are ways to slow it down and give everybody more time.

Jin Yu-young is a Korea Times intern.