Doing Poetry

Since her debut in 1979, Kim Hyesoon has been one of South Korea's most acclaimed and provocative poets. In the words of fellow poet Pam Brown, "[Kim's] poems are not ironic. They are direct, deliberately grotesque, theatrical, unsettling, excessive, visceral and somatic. This is feminist surrealism loaded with shifting, playful linguistics that both defile and defy traditional roles for women." As Kim stated in 2012, the patriarchal Korean literary establishment has historically categorized work like hers as "Women's Poetry," a pejorative label that she subverted by coining the phrase "Doing Poetry," which underscores the extent to which women live poetry in addition to writing it. 

Don Mee Choi, who has translated several of Kim's books into English, elaborates: "Kim's poetry goes beyond the expectations of established aesthetics and traditional ‘female poetry’ (yŏryusi), which is characterized by its passive, refined language … Kim's poetics are rooted in her attempt to resist conventional literary forms and language long defined by men in Korea." Choi's translations of Kim's work include When the Plug Gets Unplugged (Tinfish Press, 2006), Mommy Must Be a Fountain of Feathers (Action Books, 2008), All the Garbage of the World, Unite! (Action Books, 2011), Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream (Action Books, 2014), I’m OK, I’m Pig (Bloodaxe Books, 2014), Poor Love Machine (Action Books, 2016), and The Autobiography of Death (New Directions, 2018). Kim's latest English-language collection is Phantom Pain Wings (New Directions, 2023), the basis for this folio. 

Kim's numerous honors include the Kim Su-young Literary Award, the Midang Literary Award, and the Daesan Literary Award. In 2019, she received the the Griffin Poetry Prize. She lives in Seoul.