A new collection of poetry by Kim Hyesoon, translated from Korean by Don Mee Choi, has been published by Action Books.

The book includes Kim Hyesoon's short statement on Korean poetry and her own writing, as well two interviews. In one excerpt from an interview published here (from the summer 2012 edition of Munyejungang) Kim Hyesoon explains the background to her tremendously powerful poem 'I'm OK, I'm Pig!'. A brief summary is that there was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in South Korea in 2011 and three million pigs (and almost every cow in the country) were buried, whether diseased or not, and many were thrown into pits and buried alive. The poem is an extraordinary response to one form of contemporary barbarism.

For information visit the publisher's site here.
For information on the translator, Don Mee Choi, click here.
For my brief essay on some of Kim Hyesoon's earlier work click here.

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