Cathy Park Hong

Hong, a child of Korean parents, was raised in Los Angeles, California.{{Cite web |last=Academy of American Poets |title=About Cathy Park Hong | Academy of American Poets |url=https://poets.org/poet/cathy-park-hong |website=poets.org |access-date=Mar 27, 2020}} She graduated from Oberlin College and has an MFA from Iowa Writers' Workshop.{{Cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/cathy-park-hong|title=Cathy Park Hong|last=Poetry Foundation|date=Mar 27, 2020|website=Poetry Foundation|access-date=Mar 27, 2020}}

She taught creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College,{{Cite web |url=http://www.slc.edu/faculty/hong-cathy-park.html |title=Cathy Park Hong - Sarah Lawrence College Faculty |access-date=2012-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012002946/http://www.slc.edu/faculty/hong-cathy-park.html |archive-date=2012-10-12 }} Rutgers University, and UC Berkeley,{{cite web | url=https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/cathy-park-hong | title=Cathy Park Hong | Research UC Berkeley }} and was previously poetry editor for The New Republic.{{Cite news|url=https://www.poetrynw.org/interview-cathy-park-hong/|title=Interview // Cathy Park Hong|last=Nguyen|first=Diana Khoi|date=2019-10-08|work=poetrynw.org|access-date=2020-12-02}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.guernicamag.com/cathy-park-hong-im-so-sick-of-the-fact-that-its-not-changing/|title=Cathy Park Hong: I'm So Sick of the Fact That It's Not Changing|last=Shah|first=Seejal|date=2019-10-08|work=Guernica|access-date=2020-12-02}}

Hong is, according to J.P. Eburne's summary of her poetic approach, "dedicated to expanding and experimenting with the capacities of a living art. Her writing, editing, and performances across media seek to open up the 'interactive possibilities' of poetry for the sake of providing 'alternative ways of living within the existing real', as she puts it. 'What are ways in which the poetic praxis can be a ritual for social experimentation? The poem as a public encounter is entrenched in habit. How many ways can we change this encounter?{{'"}}Eburne, J. P. & Hong, C. P. "Throwing Your Voice: An Interview with Cathy Park Hong." ASAP/Journal, vol. 3 no. 1, 2018, pp. 1-12. {{doi|10.1353/asa.2018.0000}}

Hong's books of poems include Translating Mo'um (2002), Dance Dance Revolution (2007), and Engine Empire (2012). Her poems have appeared in A Public Space, Paris Review, Poetry, Web Conjunctions, jubilat, and Chain, among others. She has also written articles for publications like The Village Voice, The Guardian, The Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times Magazine. In 2002, she won a Pushcart Prize for Translating Mo'um and she won the 2006 Barnard Women Poets Prize.{{cite web|url=http://collegenews.org/x5808.xml |author=Ruth Patkin |publisher=Barnard College |title=2006 Barnard Women Poets Prize Awarded to Cathy Park Hong |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121101955/http://collegenews.org/x5808.xml |archive-date=November 21, 2010 }}

She was named on the 2021 Time 100 list for her writings and advocacy for Asian American women.

File:Cathy Park Hong - LOC - Oct 18 2016.jpg in 2016.]]

Dance Dance Revolution was Hong's second book, published in 2007 by W.W. Norton. It is a collection of poems, written in a style that encompasses "code-switching", or the mixture of several languages, such as English, Spanish, French and Korean, and spoken extremely informally with the inclusion of slang. The story takes place in an imaginary place called "The Desert", a luxurious place where people of different origins and languages mingle, causing a blend of languages that form into a dialect known in the book as "Desert Creole".

The narrator of Dance Dance Revolution is the Historian, who travels to the Desert to find the woman who her father once loved. "The Guide", a character in the story who acts as the tour guide to the Historian, is that woman. Most of the poems in the book are told from The Guide's point of view, characterized by the Guide's mixture of languages and point of view, with narration of the Historian, which is characterized by the Historian's use of standard English. The Guide uses the poems to talk about her life in the Desert as well as her past during the Kwangju Revolution, when she lived in South Korea before she moved to the Desert.Hong, Cathy Park. Dance Dance Revolution.

When asked about the unusual language in the book, Hong commented, "As far as the language, I was reading a lot of linguistic theory at the time, particularly on this idea of Creole as a language that is in transition. French, for instance, was a Creole of Latin before it became the "official" language. English is always in transition, although the Standard version is more likely to be frozen in its glass cube. But spoken, English is a busy traffic of dialects, accents, and slang words going in and out of fashion. Slang is especially fascinating. I love outdated slang dictionaries — these words are artifacts that tell you the mindset and squeamish taboos of a certain milieu during a certain time period. I wanted the English in the book to be a hyperbole of that everyday dynamism of spoken English."

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, published in 2020 by One World, was Hong's first non-fiction book. It can be considered a memoir and autobiographical to a certain extent.{{Cite web|last=Yale University|date=October 26, 2020|title=Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning|website=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f96pIOPOSsw&t=132s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/f96pIOPOSsw |archive-date=2021-12-15|url-status=live}}{{cbignore}} Organized around seven essays and addressing different acts of racial discrimination, Minor Feelings uses Hong's life experiences and feelings to demonstrate what it is like living as part of a marginalized community in the capitalist United States of America.{{Cite book|last=Hong|first=Cathy Park|title=Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning|publisher=One World|year=2020|isbn=9781984820365|location=United States of America}} The book was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.{{Cite web |website=The Pulitzer Prizes |title=Finalist: Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, by Cathy Park Hong |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/cathy-park-hong |access-date=2022-12-07 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Cathy Park Hong Wins National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography |url=https://sasn.rutgers.edu/news-events/news/cathy-park-hong-wins-national-book-critics-circle-award-autobiography |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=Rutgers SASN |date=March 31, 2021 |language=en}} In 2021, Greta Lee and A24 were reported to be working on an adaptation of the book.{{Cite web |last=White |first=Peter |date=2021-05-05 |title=Greta Lee To Star In, Write & EP Series Adaptation Of Cathy Park Hong’s Book ‘Minor Feelings’ With A24 |url=https://deadline.com/2021/05/greta-lee-to-star-write-ep-tv-adaptation-of-cathy-park-hongs-book-minor-feelings-a24-1234750565/ |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}

• 2002: Pushcart Prize for Translating Mo'Um
• 2006: Barnard Women Poets Prize for Dance Dance Revolution{{Cite web|url=https://www.pw.org/content/interview_poet_cathy_park_hong|title=An Interview With Poet Cathy Park Hong|date=Jul 11, 2007|website=Poets & Writers|access-date=Mar 27, 2020}}
• 2018: Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in Poetry{{Cite news|url=https://news.yale.edu/2018/03/07/yale-awards-eight-writers-165000-windham-campbell-prizes|title=Yale awards eight writers $165,000 Windham-Campbell Prizes|date=2018-03-07|work=YaleNews|access-date=2018-03-07|language=en}}
• 2020: National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography{{Cite web|last=Beer|first=Tom|date=2021-03-25|title=National Book Critics Circle Presents Awards|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/national-book-critics-circle-presents-awards/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-29|website=Kirkus Reviews|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326001757/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/national-book-critics-circle-presents-awards/ |archive-date=2021-03-26 }}

Other awards include a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships.

• Translating Mo'um, Hanging Loose Press, 2002, {{ISBN|9781931236126}}
• Dance Dance Revolution, W. W. Norton, 2007, {{ISBN|9780393064841}}
• Engine Empire: Poems, W. W. Norton & Company, 2012, {{ISBN|9780393082845}}
• Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, One World, 2020 {{ISBN|9781984820365}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20151126000408/http://www.lanaturnerjournal.com/7/delusions-of-whiteness-in-the-avant-garde "Delusions of Whiteness in the Avant-Garde"]

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{{Wikiquote}}

• [http://cathyparkhong.com/ cathyparkhong.com]
• [http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/08/23/cathy-park-hong-on-engine-empire/ "Cathy Park Hong on 'Engine Empire'"], Paris Review, August 23, 2011, Robyn Creswell
• [http://www.pw.org/content/interview_poet_cathy_park_hong Interview] with Poets & Writers
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110607012936/http://dir.salon.com/story/audio/2000/10/05/hong/ Cathy Park Hong reading Zoo] from Translating Mo'um
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081025030006/http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2003spring/hong.shtml Review of Translating Mo'um] from Rain Taxi
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090815170040/http://www.conjunctions.com/webcon/hong09.htm "Adventures in Shangdu"] from Conjunctions
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070611170641/http://www.jubilat.org/n13/hong.html Protean Woods] from jubilat
• [http://www.actionyes.org/issue1/hong/hong-language-guide.htm "Language Guide"] from Action, Yes
• [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/2212 poets.org] entry

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Category:1976 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American poets

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American Book Award winners

Category:American women academics

Category:American women poets

Category:American writers of Korean descent

Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni

Category:Oberlin College alumni

Category:Sarah Lawrence College faculty

Category:American women poets of Asian descent

Category:American poets of Asian descent