Kim Hyesoon

This is a Korean name; the family name is Kim.
Kim Hyesoon
Born 1955 (age 5960)
Occupation Poet, professor
Nationality Republic of Korea
Genre Poetry
Literary movement Feminism
Korean name
Hangul 김혜순
Revised Romanization Gim Hye-sun
McCune–Reischauer Kim Hyesun

Kim Hyesoon (born 1955) (Hangul: 김혜순) is a South Korean poet.

Life

In 1955 Kim Hyesoon was born in Uljin, Gyeongsangbuk-do. She received her Ph.D. in Korean Literature from Konkuk University and began as a poet in 1979 with the publication of Poet Smoking a Cigarette (Dambaereul piuneun siin) and four other poems in Literature and Intellect.[1] Kim is an important contemporary poet in South Korea, and she lives in Seoul and teaches creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Kim was in the forefront of women published in a literary journal, Munhak kwa jisŏng (Literature and Intellect).[2]

Work

Kim started to receive critical acclaim in the late 1990s and it is her own belief that her work was partly recognized because at that time there was a generally strong wave of women’s poets and poetry.[3]

Kim is the recipient of multiple literary prizes including the Kim Su-yŏng Literature Award (1996) for her poem, A Poor Love Machine, Sowol Poetry Literature Award (2000),[4] and Midang Literature Award (2006), which are named after three renowned contemporary Korean poets. Kim was the first woman poet to receive the Kim Su-yŏng Literature Award, Midang Award, contemporary poetry award and Daesan Literary Award.

Kim’s poetry collections include: From another star (1981), Father's scarecrow (1984), The Hell of a certain star (1987), Our negative picture (1991), My Upanishad, Seoul (1994), A Poor Love Machine (1997), To the Calendar Factory Manager (2000), A Glass of Red Mirror (2004), Your First (2008), and Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream (2011)

Kim has participated in readings at poetry festivals all over the world: Smith College Poetry Center (2003), Taipei Poetry Festival (2008), 41st Poetry International Festival Rotterdam (2010), Poesie Festival Berlin (2011), Poetry Parnassus London (2012) etc.

Kim's skill as a writer resides in her facility at combining poetic images with experimental language while simultaneously grounding her work in ‘feminine writing’ drawn from female experiences.[5] Her language is violent and linguistically agile, appropriate for her topics which often center on death and/or injustice.[6] Many times, Kim’s poetry is marked by the color of blood, as in “red baby,”“red embryonic fluid,”and “red dew.” [7]

Works in English

Added to The &NOW Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing (&NOW Books, 2013)[8]

Works in Korean (Partial)

Essays

To Write as a Woman: Lover, Patient, Poet, and You (Seoul: Munhakdongnae, 2002) - Essay on Poetry

Critical Responses

Ruth Williams. "“Female Poet” as Revolutionary Grotesque: Feminist Transgression in the Poetry of Ch’oe Sŭng-ja, Kim Hyesoon, and Yi Yŏn-ju." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 29.2 (2010): 395-415. Project MUSE. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Awards

See also

References

External links

Several of Kim's poems are translated here at the South Korea - Poetry International Web

Review of Kim Hyesoon’s Mommy Must be a Fountain of Feathers at Bookslut, January 2010. Review of Mommy Must Be a Fountain of Feathers in Constant Critic, March 2008,
Review of All the Garbage of the World Unite! at Montevidayo
A Mention at BURNAWAY