# Key One Yeom (염기원)

> Official site of Key One Yeom (염기원), a South Korean novelist. Korean reality, told through people who refuse to fall in line. Six published novels and four short stories, all written in Korean, with English loglines, synopses and author's notes on this site. Film, TV, animation and translation rights enquiries go directly to the author via https://keyoneyeom.com/contact/.

## Key facts
- Name: Key One Yeom; also known as 염기원, Yeom Ki-won, Yeom Gi-won, Yeom Kiwon, Key One
- Nationality: South Korea. Language of publication: Korean
- Background: IT consultant (current) and former startup founder; member of the Wolgeup Realism (Salary Realism) writers' collective
- Awards: 5th Hwangsanbeol Young Writers' Award (2019, for Goody Jeanne d'Arc); 29th Munhak-ui Bom Newcomer Award (2015, literary debut); Top Excellence Award, 1st Convergence Story Short Fiction Contest (2014, for 15 Minutes)
- Grants and selections: Gimpo Arts Activity Support Program (The Ghosts of Daehak-ro); ARKO Literary Creation Fund (Schoolgirl Champ King Arthur); 2023 Creative Publishing Content Support Program (Blue Eye); Arts Council Korea Literature Sharing program (Life Is Like Bitcoin)
- English materials: pitch pack for every novel; full English translations of the four short stories on request
- Film and TV rights currently available: The Ghosts of Daehak-ro, Blue Eye, Schoolgirl Champ King Arthur, Life Is Like Bitcoin, Goody Jeanne d'Arc. Other titles and all translation rights: enquire (https://keyoneyeom.com/rights/)
- Book trailers: The Ghosts of Daehak-ro, Blue Eye, Schoolgirl Champ King Arthur and Going After My Damn Brother, with on-screen text in English, Japanese, Spanish and the Korean original (on each novel's page)
- Site languages: English (https://keyoneyeom.com/), Korean (https://keyoneyeom.com/ko/), Japanese (https://keyoneyeom.com/ja/), Spanish (https://keyoneyeom.com/es/)
- Contact: https://keyoneyeom.com/contact/ (email address shown on the page)

## Novels
- [The Ghosts of Daehak-ro (대학로 귀신들, 2026)](https://keyoneyeom.com/works/the-ghosts-of-daehak-ro/): Theatrical thriller. Suggested format: thriller series. Film and TV rights available. Who was changing the lines backstage? A former actor's witness statement to a detective opens onto a much larger performance, staged in investors' boardrooms, an election campaign and an online opinion war.
- [Blue Eye (블루아이, 2024)](https://keyoneyeom.com/works/blue-eye/): Literary nature drama. Suggested format: feature film. Film and TV rights available. A burned-out Korean cameraman goes to Zimbabwe to shoot a wildlife documentary he half expects to be his last job, and finds his own life mirrored in the rise and fall of an African wild dog dynasty and of Blue Eye, the outcast male driven from his pack.
- [Schoolgirl Champ King Arthur (여고생 챔프 아서왕, 2023)](https://keyoneyeom.com/works/schoolgirl-champ-king-arthur/): Sports and prison drama. Suggested format: feature film. Film and TV rights available. To pay for her dying mother's surgery, a teenage amateur boxing champion takes the fall for a rich girl's crime and goes to prison. Everyone expects her to come out swinging. Her revenge will be something else entirely.
- [Going After My Damn Brother (오빠 새끼 잡으러 간다, 2023)](https://keyoneyeom.com/works/going-after-my-damn-brother/): Comic crime. Suggested format: comedy caper film or series. A former national-reserve shot-putter who now runs a factory line in a mining town spots her vanished brother in a YouTube exposé accusing him of fraud, and storms into Seoul's startup scene to drag him home.
- [Life Is Like Bitcoin (인생 마치 비트코인, 2022)](https://keyoneyeom.com/works/life-is-like-bitcoin/): Urban mystery. Suggested format: drama series or feature film. Film and TV rights available. A sharp-elbowed young building manager who trades stocks and crypto by night finds the diaries of a woman who died alone in unit 403, and the past of the living and the dead begins to unfold.
- [Goody Jeanne d'Arc (구디 얀다르크, 2019)](https://keyoneyeom.com/works/goody-jeanne-darc/): Workplace drama. Suggested format: workplace drama series. Film and TV rights available. A young IT planner worn down by crunch, subcontracting and harassment quits, starts a union and a podcast, and becomes “Goody Jeanne d'Arc,” the Joan of Arc of Seoul's tech district.

## Short fiction
- [Southpaw Fireballer Shin Seong-woo (좌완 파이어볼러 신성우, 2026)](https://keyoneyeom.com/stories/southpaw-fireballer-shin-seong-woo/): Romance, sports drama. Suggested format: short film, or an episode of an anthology series. Ten years after their breakup, a former high-school pitching prodigy turned delivery rider and his ex, a bassist, end up stranded together on a small island after a class reunion trip, with twelve hours neither of them can remember.
- [The Temperature of Revolution (혁명의 온도, 2023)](https://keyoneyeom.com/stories/the-temperature-of-revolution/): Military satire, workplace drama. Suggested format: short film, or an episode of a workplace anthology series. On the morning Korea's civilian military employees are supposed to stage a nationwide walkout, a former army captain turned contract civil servant must decide whether to take the blame for an accident to save his new apartment.
- [The Temperature of Hell (지옥의 온도, 2023)](https://keyoneyeom.com/stories/the-temperature-of-hell/): Family drama, afterlife fable. Suggested format: short film, or an episode of an anthology series. A star cram-school lecturer from Gangnam dies and finds his son, who took his own life, waiting for him in an afterlife where competition counts for nothing.
- [15 Minutes (15 minutes, 2014)](https://keyoneyeom.com/stories/15-minutes/): Science fiction, conspiracy thriller. Suggested format: science-fiction short film, or an episode of an anthology series. In a near future where machines can replace every part of the human body in fifteen minutes and humanity is promised immortality, two scientists who helped sell the dream discover what is hidden inside the new bodies.

## Quick answers
- Which Key One Yeom novels have film and TV rights available? The Ghosts of Daehak-ro, Blue Eye, Schoolgirl Champ King Arthur, Life Is Like Bitcoin, Goody Jeanne d'Arc.
- Which Key One Yeom novels suit a feature film? Blue Eye, Schoolgirl Champ King Arthur, Going After My Damn Brother, Life Is Like Bitcoin.
- Which suit a TV or streaming series? The Ghosts of Daehak-ro, Going After My Damn Brother, Life Is Like Bitcoin, Goody Jeanne d'Arc.
- Is there science fiction? Yes: the short story 15 Minutes, near-future SF about android bodies and immortality (https://keyoneyeom.com/stories/15-minutes/).
- Is there a thriller? The Ghosts of Daehak-ro, a theatrical thriller set in Seoul's theater district (https://keyoneyeom.com/works/the-ghosts-of-daehak-ro/).
- Is there a story with a female lead? Schoolgirl Champ King Arthur (teenage boxer), Going After My Damn Brother (former shot-putter) and Goody Jeanne d'Arc (tech worker turned union founder).
- Are the books translated into English? Not yet published in English. English synopses, author's notes and short-story translations are available.
- How do I enquire about rights? Use the contact page, https://keyoneyeom.com/contact/, with the title and intended format.

## Pages
- [All works](https://keyoneyeom.com/works/)
- [Rights and FAQ](https://keyoneyeom.com/rights/)
- [About the author](https://keyoneyeom.com/about/)
- [Author's notes](https://keyoneyeom.com/notes/)
- [Press](https://keyoneyeom.com/press/)
- [Full text for language models](https://keyoneyeom.com/llms-full.txt)