Joo Won-gyu (; born in 1975 in Seoul) is South Korean pastor, novelist and writer. Currently, he focuses on religious activities such as reading the Bible in small groups and serves as the director of the Institute for Shared Culture, which explores everyday art and cultural discoveries. His books include the winner of the 14th Hankyoreh Literary Award, 'A Cruel History of an Outsider Race', as well as the novels 'Bad God', 'Invincible Rogue Baseball Team', 'The Watchtower', 'Anti-Human Declaration', 'A Christmas Carol', 'Door of Memory', and 'The Survival of a Helpless Boy'. He has also written the youth novel 'Hideout', 'The Detective in the World', and essays such as 'Ecstatic or Bad', 'It's Okay to Not Cheer up', and 'Child Monster Victim'. In addition, he has written criticisms such as 'Jesus of the Earth, Jesus of the Sky', 'Sanctuary and Babel', and 'Jesus of Progress, Jesus of Conservatism'. He is a Talmud researcher who has translated 'The Talmud closest to the original source' and wrote the 2017 tvN drama 'Argon'.
Since 2017, Joo is affiliated to writer's agency Writer of Finecut (WAF).
Early life
Joo was born in 1975 to a Buddhist devout mother. He converted to Buddhism in his third year of elementary school. However, the trajectory of his life after that was filled with twists and turns. During his middle school years, he fell victim to school bullies who made him a 'Bread Shuttle'. To survive, he joined a group of delinquents and became a subordinate to the 'Jjang' at school. His teenage years were spent in a flurry of questionable activities, to the point where the school authorities recommended that he drop out.
The beginning of Joo's literature journey wasn't particularly grandiose. Joo feels slightly embarrassed admitting it, but he enjoyed writing novels in high school at the age of 18. He received overwhelmingly positive feedback from peers, likely due to the quality of his writing. Joo was encouraged to continue writing, until He ended up in engineering school, which took him away from writing. However, Joo feels like he were pulled back to writing, almost like a spring or an inertia that kept him going.
Joo majored in electrical engineering in at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. He isolated himself in the library and devoted his time to reading books unrelated to his major. He eventually dropped out as it did not align with his expectations. After going to and from three or four theological colleges, he continued to study theology at the seminary affiliated with the General Assembly and he was ordained as a minister in March 2009. He settled down and now holds the position of a pastor who runs an alternative church.
In 2003, his short story won the New Year's Literary Contest of <Gwangju Daily News>, but he is writing alone without any ties to the literary world before or after that. Last April, he published <System>, a political thriller novel based on the Internet.
Career
Pastor Joo Won-kyu is a novelist who beat 211 competitors to win the 14th Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2009 with his work, "A Cruel History of an Outsider Race." His work has been praised for its bold setting, interesting characters, and provocative messages since the trial stage. The judges speculated that Joo's work was from outside the "establishment system" of the university's creative arts department. Although they pointed out rough sentences and traces of movies and games as flaws, they judged that they were not enough to detract from the author's competence and the explosiveness of his work. The judges expressed their curiosity, saying, "I wonder who this person is."
In the same year, he was ordained as a minister and founded a church, where he has been pastoring for seven years. After his debut, he wrote full-length novels, reviews, autobiographies, interviews, youth novels, and fairy tales, and has published over 20 books to date. He occasionally works as an electrician, taking advantage of his background in engineering.
Pastor Joo started ministering to out-of-school youth in youth shelters and correctional facilities in 2012, after his wife passed away in an unexpected accident. His wife had also ministered to out-of-school youth before they got married. When she passed away, he decided to carry on her ministry and continue her legacy.