Post by jingyanxi116 on May 30, 2013 23:14:33 GMT -5
Suji Kwock Kim was born in 1969 in Poughkeepsie, New York. In the 1970’s, at a time when Korean immigration was starting to increase, the Korean American population in Poughkeepsie remained relatively small. Her parents were therefore determined to make sure that Kim was aware of her family history, telling her stories of their experiences during the Korean War, including those of relatives who died. Growing up in Poughkeepsie, Kim lost the ability to speak Korean, but studied it in college at Yale University and was able to travel to Seoul on a fellowship, where she regained a connection to her native country.
Kim’s poetry focuses on the describing the horrors of the Korean War, and is painfully honest about the “bodies hung from trees on the sides of the road, swaying” and the “loneliness of dying” in a war torn country. As a Korean American poet, she has said that she feels a great deal of “responsibility that one has in terms of using the imagination as a means of compassion and understanding”. Her poems challenge readers to look at the war for what it really was; not just a struggle between two opposing forms of government, but also the destruction of millions of lives.
In her poetry, Kim uses her words to paint pictures and evoke emotion rather than to describe abstract ideas. Every one of her poems can be envisioned and felt, letting the reader hear the “children scream for mercy” and see “the comrade skinned alive”, as well as the “oxcarts crammed with blankets and crying children”.
Kim also makes it possible for the reader to feel immersed in the events described in her poetry. Readers can readily imagine themselves in the middle of “endless columns of refugees screaming in terror” with “delayed-fuse demolition bombs exploding all around” and “blowing craters larger than houses”.
Her writing has been described as “heartfelt” and “blood-soaked” by the Washington Post and “at times so fierce that the reader is nearly forced to look away from the page” by Yale Magazine. Her unabashed and detailed writing is what makes her poetry unique and memorable.
Her accomplishments are many, including being a Fulbright Scholar at Seoul National University, a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and winning the 2002 Walt Whitman Award with her first book of poems, Notes from the Divided Country, which was chosen by poet Yusef Komunyakaa.
I am now honored to introduce the Westfield High School 2013 Visiting Poet, Suji Kwock Kim.
Word Count: 414
Kim’s poetry focuses on the describing the horrors of the Korean War, and is painfully honest about the “bodies hung from trees on the sides of the road, swaying” and the “loneliness of dying” in a war torn country. As a Korean American poet, she has said that she feels a great deal of “responsibility that one has in terms of using the imagination as a means of compassion and understanding”. Her poems challenge readers to look at the war for what it really was; not just a struggle between two opposing forms of government, but also the destruction of millions of lives.
In her poetry, Kim uses her words to paint pictures and evoke emotion rather than to describe abstract ideas. Every one of her poems can be envisioned and felt, letting the reader hear the “children scream for mercy” and see “the comrade skinned alive”, as well as the “oxcarts crammed with blankets and crying children”.
Kim also makes it possible for the reader to feel immersed in the events described in her poetry. Readers can readily imagine themselves in the middle of “endless columns of refugees screaming in terror” with “delayed-fuse demolition bombs exploding all around” and “blowing craters larger than houses”.
Her writing has been described as “heartfelt” and “blood-soaked” by the Washington Post and “at times so fierce that the reader is nearly forced to look away from the page” by Yale Magazine. Her unabashed and detailed writing is what makes her poetry unique and memorable.
Her accomplishments are many, including being a Fulbright Scholar at Seoul National University, a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and winning the 2002 Walt Whitman Award with her first book of poems, Notes from the Divided Country, which was chosen by poet Yusef Komunyakaa.
I am now honored to introduce the Westfield High School 2013 Visiting Poet, Suji Kwock Kim.
Word Count: 414