Choi Jeongrye

This is a Korean name; the family name is Choi.
Jeongrye Choi
Born 1955 (age 59–60)
Language Korean
Nationality South Korean
Ethnicity Korean
Citizenship South Korean
Education Ph.D.
Alma mater Korea University
Korean name
Hangul 최정례

Jeongrye Choi (Hangul: 최정례), born in 1955, is a modern South Korean poet.[1]

Life

Jeongrye Choi was born in a city near Seoul.[2] She studied Korean poetry at Korea University and received her PhD from the same school.[3][4] She participated in the IWP (International Writing Program) as a poet at University of Iowa in 2006 and stayed one year at University of California in Berkeley as a visiting writer in 2009. Her poems were appeared in Free Verse, Iowa Review, Text Journal, World Literature Today and various Japanese literary magazines. An English-language collection, 'Instances' (which she co-translated with Wayne de Fremery and Brenda Hillman) has been published. She is currently teaching as a lecturer at Korea University.[5]

Work

Choi's poems usually originate from a profound contemplation of time and memory. For Choi, the process of identifying her true and unknown self embedded in the fragments of time and memory is a tool for understanding others and the world at large. What ultimately emerges from her exploration of fragmented memories and chaos of time is the sense of emptiness and loneliness that forms the very core of existence.[6]

A product of the poet’s ceaseless effort to pioneer a new frontier in her spiritual existence by unraveling the tangled relationship between memory and present existence, Choi’s poetic language is simple but intense, boldly rejecting sentimentalism as well as conventionalism. Plain words used in everyday conversations become unfamiliar all of a sudden, creating moments of fresh insight that reveal sorrow and pain of living. Everyday experiences entwine with fragments of forgotten memory to reveal the emptiness of life and destroy the idea of self as a solid, clearly defined being. Despite such dark subject matters, however, Choi’s language remains dynamic and full of life.[7]

In Instances, her work is described as:

"There is a quality of imagination in her work that is still a rare thing in poetry—despite the opening up of form, content, and linguistic exploration that current innovative poetry has given us in the last few decades. Choi uses the image less for description than as enactment—almost as if the residue of the phantom in the poet’s brain were an action in itself—of reality."[8]
"Choi’s images are what might be termed “surreal,” but they are also “magical realism,” and at times quite abstract. ... Her style of image-making has odd wit and sweep; she makes the memory a layered reality that speaks to the current poetic moment. Her reality is a braid of metaphor, memory, intellect, and feeling. ... Images can be quite radical—and the dazzle of Jeongrye’s work can remind American readers about the mental variety and hopes for art brought from Modernism. Wayne has indicated she uses a lot of verbal play, syntactic doubling, and punning. The particular oddness of the way she sees the world is very appealing, however intense and tragic the subject matter can sometimes be. Her work is feminist in a way that I find instructive."[9]

Choi has received several awards including the Yi-su prize in 2003, the Modern Literature Prize in 2007, and the Baekseok Literature Prize in 2012.[10]

Works in Translation

Works in Korean (Partial)

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "박상순" biographical PDF available at LTI Korea Library or online at: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do#
  2. ↑ Choi, Jeongrye (2011). Instances. South Carolina: Parlor Press. p. Preface. ISBN 978-1602352346.
  3. ↑ "Choi Jeong-rye" LTI Korea Datasheet available at LTI Korea Library or online at: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do#
  4. ↑ "Naver Search". http://people.search.naver.com/search.naver?sm=tab_hty&where=people&query=%EC%B5%9C%EC%A0%95%EB%A1%80&ie=utf8&x=-614&y=-27''. Naver. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Montgomery, Charles (June 4, 2014). "Jeongrye Choi – Upcoming Interview". www.ktlit.com. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Choi Jeong-rye". Korean Writers The Poets. Minumsa Press. 2005. p. 23.
  7. ↑ "박상순" biographical PDF available at LTI Korea Library or online at: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do#
  8. ↑ Choi, Jeongrye (2011). Instances. South Carolina: Parlor Press. p. Preface. ISBN 978-1602352346.
  9. ↑ Choi, Jeongrye (2011). Instances. South Carolina: Parlor Press. p. Preface. ISBN 978-1602352346.
  10. ↑ "Naver Search". http://people.search.naver.com/search.naver?sm=tab_hty&where=people&query=%EC%B5%9C%EC%A0%95%EB%A1%80&ie=utf8&x=-614&y=-27''. Naver. Retrieved 8 November 2013.

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