Kim Hyesoon

{{about|the South Korean poet|the Korean-American computer engineer|Hyesoon Kim}}

{{Multiple issues|{{BLP sources|date=July 2022}}

{{External links|date=July 2022}}}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Kim Hyesoon

| image = Poesiefestival Berlin 2023 - Kim Hyesoon.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption = Kim Hyesoon in Berlin (2023).

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1955|10|26}}

| birth_place = Uljin County, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea

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| occupation = Poet, professor

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| genre = Poetry

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| movement = Feminism

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| module = {{Infobox Korean name/auto

|hangul = %김혜순

|hanja = 金惠順

|child=yes

}}

Kim Hyesoon{{Cite web |script-title=ko:김혜순 {{!}} Kim Hyesoon |url=https://www.poetkimhyesoon.com/ |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=kimhyesoon |language=ko}} ({{korean|hangul=김혜순}}; born 26 October 1955) is a South Korean poet. She was the first woman poet to receive the Kim Su-yeong Literature Award, Midang Literary Award, Contemporary Poetry Award, and Daesan Literary Awards. She has also received the Griffin Poetry Prize (2019), the Cikada Prize, the Samsung Ho-Am Prize in the Arts (2022), U.K Royal Society of Literature International writer (2022), and National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. She is the first foreign poet laureate to win the award.

Life

Kim Hyesoon was born in Uljin County, North Gyeongsang Province. She was raised by her grandmother and had tuberculous pleurisy as a child.{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Ruth |title=Kim Hyesoon: The Female Grotesque |url=https://www.guernicamag.com/williams_kim_1_1_12/ |work=Guernica |date=1 January 2012}} She received her Ph.D. in Korean literature from Konkuk University{{Cite web |title=The Arts/Kim Hyesoon 2022 Laureates - HOAM |url=http://www.hoamfoundation.org/eng/award/thisyear_view.asp?idx=494 |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=www.hoamfoundation.org}} and began her career as a poet in 1979 with the publication of the poem "Dead body Smoking a Cigarette" along with four other of her poems in the literary magazine Literature and Intellect (Munhak-kwa Jiseong).{{cite web |script-title=ko:문학과 지성사 |url=https://moonji.com/}} Kim Hyesoon is Poet, essayist, and critic. She is one of the most prominent and influential contemporary poets of South Korea. She has published fourteen poetry books and four books on poetics. Kim is an most 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 Literature and Intellect.{{Cite web |title=Kim Hyesoon |url=https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poet/kim-hyesoon/ |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=Modern Poetry in Translation |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Kim Hyesoon |url=https://www.poetryinternational.com/poets-poems/poets/poet/102-17171_Kim |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=www.poetryinternational.com |language=nl}}

Work

Kim started to receive critical acclaim in the 1990s. Her own belief is that her work was recognized at that time in no small part because the 1990s in South Korea were noted for a generally strong wave of women poets and women's poetry.

Kim is the recipient of multiple literary prizes including the Kim Su-yeong Literature Award (1996) for her poem "A Poor Love Machine", the Sowol Poetry Prize (2000), and the Midang Literary Award (2006), which are named after three renowned contemporary Korean poets. Kim was the first woman poet to receive the Kim Su-yeong Literature Award, Midang Literary Award, Contemporary Poetry Award, and Daesan Literary Award.{{Cite web|date=2022-07-19 |title=Kim Hyesoon |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/kim-hyesoon |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=Poetry Foundation |language=en}} More recently she has also received the Lee Hyoung-Gi Literary Award (2019), the Griffin Poetry Prize (2019),{{cite web |title=kim hyesoon Griffin poetry prize prize |url=https://griffinpoetryprize.com/poet/kim-hyesoon/}} the Cikada Prize, the Samsung Ho-Am Prize in the Arts (2022), U.K Royal Society of Literature International writer (2022), and National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry (2023, she is the first foreign poet laureate who won the award).{{Cite news |last1=Alter |first1=Alexandra |last2=Harris |first2=Elizabeth A. |date=2024-03-22 |title=Lorrie Moore Is Among National Book Critics Circle Award Winners |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/books/lorrie-moore-national-book-critics-circle-awards.html |access-date=2024-07-04 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Kim Hyesoon was named the T.S. Eliot Memorial Reader at Harvard University Library (2023).{{cite web |title=Harvard, T.S Eliot Memorial Reading |url=https://community.harvard.edu/event/t-s-eliot-memorial-reading-kim-hyesoon-don-mee-choi}}

Her poetry collection Phantompain Wings was named poetry book of the year(2023) by the New York Times and Washington Post, The Poetry Society(U.K),https://poetrysociety.org.uk/news/The poetry-society of England-books-of-the-year-2023/ among others.https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/books/review/best-poetry-books-2023.html, https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/11/15/best-poetry/

Her poems have been translated into many languages (Swedish, French, German, Polish, Persian, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Danish, etc).

Kim's profile appeared in The New Yorker,{{cite news |title=kim hyesoon's animal obsession |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/kim-hyesoons-animal-obsessions}} and her poems have appeared in The New York Times,{{cite news |title=Kim Hyesoon - Going Going Gone |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/magazine/poem-going-going-gone.html |website=New York Times|date=21 April 2022 }} Guernica,{{cite journal |title=Celebrating kim hyesoon |journal=Guernica |date=6 July 2023 |url=https://www.guernicamag.com/celebrating-kim-hyesoon-2/}} The Paris Review, The Nation,{{cite journal |title=kim hyeoon adeverbs fly |journal=The Nation |date=June 2021 |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/adverbs-fly/ |last1=Kim |first1=Hyesoon }} The Poetry Foundation,{{cite journal |title=A kim hyesoon flio |journal=Poetry Foundation |date=4 August 2023 |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/159850/doing-poetry}} The Boston Review,{{cite journal |title=kim hyesoon Smell of Wings |journal=Boston Review |date=14 April 2022 |url=https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/smell-of-wings/ |last1=Kim |first1=Hyesoon |last2=Choi |first2=Don Mee }} The European Review{{cite journal |title=Kim Hyesoon Sugar mouse |journal=European Review |url=https://europeanreviewofbooks.com/sugar-mouse/en}} poetryinternationalweb,{{cite web |title=poetryy international Rotterdam |url=https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poets/poet/102-17171_Kim}} and Tricycle.{{Cite web |last=Sheffield |first=Mike |date=2023-11-11 |title=Korean Zen |url=https://tricycle.org/article/poet-kim-hyesoon/ |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review |language=en}}

Kim's poetry collections include: From another star (1981), Father's scarecrow (1985), 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), Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream (2011), Blossom, Pig (2016), Autobiography of Death (2016), and Wing Phantom Pain (2019). After Earth Dies, who will Moon Orbit?(2022).

Kim has participated in readings at poetry festivals all over the world.

Kim Hyesoon's poetry was used for Jenny Holzer's exhibit at the Korean National Museum of Modern contemporary Art.{{cite web |title=Jenny Holzer |url=https://www.poetkimhyesoon.com/single-post/2019/12/15/jenny-holzer-for-you |website=Jenny Holzer |date=15 December 2019 }}

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. Her language is violent and linguistically agile, appropriate for her topics which often center on death and/or injustice. A landmark feminist poet and critic in her native South Korea, Kim Hyesoon's surreal, dagger-sharp poetry has spread from hemisphere to hemisphere in the past ten years, her works translated to Chinese, Swedish, English, French, German, Dutch, Danish and beyond. Kim Hyesoon raises a glass to the reader in the form of a series of riddles, poems conjuring the you inside the me, the night inside the day, the outside inside the inside, the ocean inside the tear. Kim's radical, paradoxical intimacies entail sites of pain as well as wonder, opening onto impossible—which is to say, visionary—vistas. Again and again, in these poems as across her career, Kim unlocks a horizon inside the vanishing point.

{{blockquote|The birdlike Kim weaves a pattern of poems, so strangely compelling and curious, and utterly unlike anything I had heard before. —Sasha Dugdale}}{{cite web |title=Poet Sasha Dugdale |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasha_Dugdale}}{{Circular reference|date=May 2024}}

=Works in English=

Phantom Pain Wings New Directions Publishing, translated by Don Mee Choi {{ISBN|978-0811231718|}}{{Cite web |date=2023-05-04 |title=Poet Kim Hye-soon's 'Phantom Pain Wings' published in English |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2024/05/135_350346.html |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=The Korea Times |language=en}}
A Drink of Red Mirror Action Books {{ISBN|978-0900575808}}
The Autobiography of Death New Directions Publishing, translated by Don Mee Choi {{ISBN|978-0811227346}} (the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize)
Poor Love Machine Action Books {{ISBN|978-0-900575-75-4}}
I'm O.K, I'm Pig Bloodaxe Books {{ISBN|978-1-78037-102-3}}
Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream Action Books {{ISBN|978-0-9898048-1-3}}
Mommy Must be a Fountain of Feathers Action Books {{ISBN|0979975514}}
Anxiety of Words (Collection with other authors) Zephyr Press {{ISBN|0939010879}}
All the Garbage of the World, Unite! Action Books {{ISBN|0983148015}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120205221932/http://tinfishpress.com/unplugged.html When the Plug Gets Unplugged]
Princess Abandoned (essays), (Tinfish, 2012)
Trilingual Renshi Vagabond Press {{ISBN|978-1-922181-44-2}}

Added to The &NOW Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing (&NOW Books, 2013){{Cite book |isbn = 978-0982315644|title = The &NOW Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing|last1 = Schneiderman|first1 = Davis|year = 2012| publisher=&NOW Books }}

= Works in Korean =

From Another Star, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul, 1981
Father's Scarecrow, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul, 1985
The Hell of a Certain Star, Ch'ŏngha Seoul, 1988. Reprinted by Munhakdongnae, 1997
Our Negative Picture, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul, 1991
My Upanishad, Seoul, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul, 1994
A Poor Love Machine, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul, 1997
To the Calendar Factory Manager, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul, 2000
A Glass of Red Mirror, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul, 2004
Your First, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul, 2008
Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul 2011
Blossom, Pig, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul 2016
The Autobiography of Death, Munhaksilheomsil, Seoul 2016
Phantom Pain of wings, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul 2019
After Earth Dies, who will Moon Orbit?, Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, Seoul 2022{{Cite magazine |last=Kim |first=E. Tammy |date=2023-07-14 |title=Kim Hyesoon's Animal Obsessions |language=en-US |magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/kim-hyesoons-animal-obsessions |access-date=2023-12-13 |issn=0028-792X}}

=Essays=

To Write as a Woman: Lover, Patient, Poet, and You (Seoul: Munhakdongnae, 2002) - Essay on Poetry
Thus Spoke No (Proems) (Seoul: Munhakdongane, 2016)
Women, Do Poetry (Seoul: Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, 2017)
Do Womananimalasia (Seoul: Munhak kwa chisŏng sa, 2019)
Kim Hyesoon's Words (Seoul: Maumsanchaek, 2023, Interview Book)

=Interview=

{{cite journal|first=Ruth |last=Williams |title="Female Poet" as Revolutionary Grotesque: Feminist Transgression in the Poetry of Ch'oe Sŭng-ja, Kim Hyesoon, and Yi Yŏn-ju | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41337285 |journal=Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature| volume=29 |issue=2 |date=2010 |pages=395–415|doi=10.1353/tsw.2010.a461384 |jstor=41337285 |s2cid=161895782 }}

https://www.kln.or.kr/frames/interviewsView.do?bbsIdx=387

Awards

Kim Suyeong Literary Award (1997)
Sowol Poetry Award (2000)
Contemporary Poetry Award (2000)
Korea Culture and Arts Foundation 'This Year's' Art Prize (2004)
Midang Literature Award (2006)
Daesan Literature Award (2008){{cite web |title=The Daesan Foundation |url=https://www.daesan.or.kr/business.html?d_code=3327&uid_h=268&view=history}}
Lee Hyoung-Gi Literary Award (2019)
Korea Culture & Art Prize (2019)
Griffin Poetry Prize (2019){{Cite web |date=2019-06-06 |title=Autobiography of Death by Don Mee Choi, translated from the Korean written by Kim Hyesoon and Quarrels by Eve Joseph Win the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize |url=https://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/autobiography-of-death-by-don-mee-choi-translated-from-the-korean-written-by-kim-hyesoon-and-quarrels-by-eve-joseph-win-the-2019-griffin-poetry-prize/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221223654/https://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/autobiography-of-death-by-don-mee-choi-translated-from-the-korean-written-by-kim-hyesoon-and-quarrels-by-eve-joseph-win-the-2019-griffin-poetry-prize/ |archive-date=2020-02-21 |website=Griffin Poetry Prize}}
Cikada Prize (2021, Sweden){{cite news |title=kim hyesoon Cikada Prize |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2022/07/142_319928.html}}
Ho-Am Prize in the Arts (2022){{cite web |url= https://newsis.com/view/?id=NISX20220531_0001892407 |script-title=ko:32회 삼성호암상…오용근 포스텍 교수 등 6인 수상 |author=이인준 |date= 31 May 2022 |website=Newsis |publisher= |access-date= 3 June 2022 |quote= |language= Korean}}
U.K. Royal Society of Literature International writer (2022){{cite news |title=Royal Society of Literature 2022 International Writers |url=https://www.indiependent.co.uk/writers-honoured-by-royal-society-of-literature-2022-international-writers-programme/}}{{cite web|url=https://rsliterature.org/rsl-international-writers/|title=RSL International Writers|date=3 September 2023 |publisher=Royal Society of Literature|access-date=December 3, 2023}}
National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry (2023){{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2024-03-22 |title=NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE ANNOUNCES WINNERS FOR PUBLISHING YEAR 2023 |url=https://www.bookcritics.org/2024/03/21/national-book-critics-circle-announces-winners-for-publishing-year-2023/ |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=National Book Critics Circle |language=en-US}}
Academy of Arts and Sciences Member : Humanities and Arts (IHM)(2025)https://www.amacad.org/new-members-2025

References

External links

[https://www.freitag.de/autoren/beate-troeger/kim-hyesoons-rede-zur-poesie-spielt-in-einer-liga-mit-paul-celan/ der Freitag: Kim Hyesoons „Rede zur Poesie" spielt in einer Liga mit Paul Celan und Gottfried Benn]
[http://www.raintaxi.com/autobiography-of-death/ rain taxi: Autobiography of Death]
[https://poetrysociety.org.uk/book-review-midnight-sun/ The Poetry Society: Book Review: Midnight Sun]
[https://tskymag.com/2019/05/kim-hyesoon-drink-red-mirror/ Tarpaulin Sky Press: Kim Hyesoon, A Drink of Red Mirror]
[https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/books/g27141414/poetry-books/ The Oprah Magazine: 17 of the Best Poetry Books, as Recommended by Acclaimed Writers for National Poetry Month]
[http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/2019/04/11/the-2019-best-translated-book-award-longlists/ Three Percent: The 2019 Best Translated Book Award Longlists]
[https://www.kenyonreview.org/reviews/mar-2019-micro-reviews/ Kenyon review: March 2019 Micro Reviews]
[https://therumpus.net/2019/04/five-books-for-national-poetry-month/ Rumpus: Painful Celebrations: Five Books for National Poetry Monty]
[https://yellowrabbits.weebly.com/reviews/yr-63-a-drink-of-red-mirror-by-kim-hyesoon/ Yellow Rabbits: 63 A Drink of Red Mirror by Kim Hyesoon]
[https://medium.com/anomalyblog/the-home-inside-the-body-real-chaos-astrology-vol-13-b8fede77911e/ A Medium Corporation: The Home inside the Body: Real Chaos Astrology vol.13]
[https://iexaminer.org/autobiography-of-death-forty-nine-poems-to-guide-you-to-the-afterlife/ International Examiner: Autobiography of Death: Forty-Nine Poems to Guide You to the Afterlife]
[http://htmlgiant.com/tag/kim-hyesoon/ HTMLGIANT / 25 Points: Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream]
[https://roughghosts.com/2019/01/21/forty-nine-days-of-the-spirit-autobiography-of-death-by-kim-hyesoon/ Forty-nine days of the spirit: Autobiography of Death by Kim Hyesoon] roughghosts.com
[http://cordite.org.au/translations/choi-hyesoon/ Four Poems from Kim Hyesoon's 'Autobiography of Death'] Cordite Poetry Review
[http://cordite.org.au/reviews/joel-scott-reviews-kim-hyesoon-and-don-mee-choi/ Review of Kim Hyesoon's poetry] as well as the poetry written by her translator Don Mee Choi.
[https://hkrbooks.com/2017/07/25/the-salt-dress-inside-me/ The Salt Dress inside Me] Hong Kong Review of Books
[https://www.en-attendant-nadeau.fr/2018/06/05/souvenirs-livre-morts-hyesoon/ Souvenirs du Livre des morts tibétain] En Attendant Nadeau
[http://thefanzine.com/the-toxic-inversion-as-subversion-everyone-or-the-dead-the-child-migrant/ The Toxic & the Lyric II: Hearing and Hell; Inversion as Subversion; Everyone, or, the Dead; the Child-Migrant] Fanzine
{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190306044437/http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/poet-and-pig/ Poet and Pig]}} The Oxonian Review
[http://angelcityreview.com/poor-love-machine/ Poor Love Machine] Angel City Review
[https://aaww.org/kim-hyesoon-vanishing-point/ The Vanishing Point: Writers Speak to Kim Hyesoon's Poetry in Translation] Asian American Writer's Workshop
[https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2016/06/23/whats-new-in-translation-june-2016/ What's New in Translation? June 2016] Asymptote
[https://tarpaulinsky.com/2016/05/kim-hyesoon-review/ Kim Hyesoon's Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream" reviewed by Lisa A. Flowers] Tarpaulin Sky Press
[https://blogs.mediapart.fr/patrice-beray/blog/250316/et-la-vie-meme-se-retourne-comme-un-gant-nous-dit-kim-hyesoon/ Et la vie même se retourne comme un gant, nous dit Kim Hyesoon] Mediapart
[http://htmlgiant.com/reviews/25-points-all-the-garbage-of-the-world-unite/ HTMLGIANT / 25 Points: All the Garbage of the World Unite!] HTMLGINAT
[http://jacket2.org/commentary/meme-lone-tree-got-planted-bed/ Meme is a lone tree that got planted in a bed] Jacket 2
[http://jacket2.org/reviews/contagious-poetry/ Contagious Poetry] Jacket 2
[https://muse.jhu.edu/article/606189/ Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream by Kim Hyesoon] Project Muse
[https://hyperallergic.com/120043/the-sick-world-of-kim-hyesoon/ The Sick World of Kim Hyesoon] Hyperallergic
[http://criticalflame.org/a-feminist-ontology-of-ooziness-kim-hyesoon/ A Feminist Ontology of Ooziness: On Kim Hyesoon] The Critical Flame
[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2013/09/eyeful-kim-hyesoons-poetics-poetry-hinging-the-spirits-experience/ Eyeful: Kim Hyesoon's Poetics & Poetry Hinging the Spirit's Experience] Poetry Foundation
[http://htmlgiant.com/random/this-is-the-ek-static-city-thoughts-on-kim-hyesoons-poetryand-poetics/ This is the Ek-Static City: Thoughts on Kim Hyesoon's Poetry and Poetics] HTMLGIANT
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120122044012/http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/3358/williams_kim_1_1_12/ Interview with Kim Hyesoon in Guernica]
{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20150304052423/http://www.thevolta.org/ewc51-jgoransson-p1.html Toward a Sensationalistic Theory of Translation]}} The Volta
[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/poetry-round-up-from-letters-of-war-to-questions-of-faith-and-sex-9252252.html/ Poetry round-up: From letters of war to questions of faith and sex] Independent
[https://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/williams_kim_1_1_12/ Kim Hyesoon: The Female Grotesque] Guernica
[http://www.ktlit.com/interview-with-poet-kim-hyesoon/ Interview with Poet Kim Hyesoon] Korean Literature in Translation
[http://www.constantcritic.com/k_silem_mohammad/mommy-must-be-a-fountain-of-feathers/ Mommy Must Be a Fountain of Feathers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216201510/http://www.constantcritic.com/k_silem_mohammad/mommy-must-be-a-fountain-of-feathers/ |date=2012-02-16 }}