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Indian Express
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Who is the South Korean poet behind ‘Autobiography of Death'? Inside Kim Hyesoon's searing verse
South Korean poet Kim Hyesoon has been awarded the 2025 International Prize for Literature by Germany's Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures, HKW) for her searing and surreal poetry collection Autobiography of Death. She is the first Asian writer to receive the award. The award, shared with translators Park Sool and Uljana Wolf, recognises an outstanding work of contemporary international literature translated into German. Kim's collection, originally published in Korean in 2016 and released in German by S Fischer Verlag earlier this year, was selected unanimously by the jury, which praised her 'enigmatic' poetry as a revelation of meaning 'only visible when the right direction has already been taken.' At the core of Autobiography of Death lies a 49-part elegy that draws on Buddhist funerary tradition, representing the journey of a soul across forty-nine days after death. But in Kim's hands, this structure becomes a powerful metaphor for the recursive trauma of a nation haunted by political violence and personal loss. 'We remain living,' she has said, 'in the structure of death.' Her poems are acts of spiritual insurgency: dense, grotesque, and unrelenting. Born in Uljin, South Korea, and raised by her grandmother, Kim has built her poetic voice in direct opposition to the passive lyricism historically expected of Korean women poets. Since publishing her early work in the resistance-era journal Munhak kwa Jisong (Literature and Intellect) during the politically fraught 1970s and 1980s, Kim has used poetry as a site of political, bodily, and linguistic refusal. In a society where women's experiences were often erased or aestheticised into docility, Kim's voice remains a rupture. Her lines pulse with images of illness, animality, motherhood, and death, rendered in a style that blends surrealism with fierce interiority. She speaks not for the individual but for the multitude: for girls buried under patriarchal histories, for mothers silenced by war, for bodies dismembered by language. In her words, 'the language of women's poetry is internal, yet defiant and revolutionary.' This defiance has earned Kim many firsts: the first woman to win both the Kim Su-yŏng and Midang Literary Awards, the first South Korean poet to receive the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize, and now the first Asian writer to receive HKW's International Prize. Much of Kim's international recognition can also be attributed to her long-time English translator Don Mee Choi, whose own work has illuminated the political and linguistic complexities of Korean-American poetics. Together, Kim and Choi have forged a transnational feminist aesthetic that refuses erasure, from I'm OK, I'm Pig! to Autobiography of Death, their collaborations have pushed the boundaries of what lyric poetry can hold. With its visceral depictions of unjust deaths and its incantatory, recursive rhythm, Autobiography of Death does not seek to comfort. It mourns with teeth bared. 'Kim's poetry,' wrote Publishers Weekly in a starred review, 'reveals the startling architecture she develops to display structural horrors, individual loss, and the links between them.' Kim Hyesoon lives in Seoul and teaches at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Aishwarya Khosla is a journalist currently serving as Deputy Copy Editor at The Indian Express. Her writings examine the interplay of culture, identity, and politics. She began her career at the Hindustan Times, where she covered books, theatre, culture, and the Punjabi diaspora. Her editorial expertise spans the Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab and Online desks. She was the recipient of the The Nehru Fellowship in Politics and Elections, where she studied political campaigns, policy research, political strategy and communications for a year. She pens The Indian Express newsletter, Meanwhile, Back Home. Write to her at or You can follow her on Instagram: @ink_and_ideology, and X: @KhoslaAishwarya. ... Read More
Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Poet Kim Hye-soon wins Germany's International Literature Prize, first Asian honoree
'Autobiography of Death,' which won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2019, continues to garner international acclaim Acclaimed South Korean poet Kim Hye-soon has been named the winner of the 2025 International Prize for Literature for her poetry collection "Autobiography of Death," becoming the first Asian recipient of the German literary award presented by the House of World Cultures (HKW) in Berlin. The announcement was made on Thursday during a ceremony hosted by HKW, where Kim was selected from among six finalists. Other shortlisted authors included Turkish German writer Dogan Akhanli, Canadian writer Sarah Bernstein, Ukrainian writer Anna Melikova, French writer Neige Sinno and American novelist Jesmyn Ward. The jury unanimously selected Kim, praising the power of her verse: 'In the wonder of Hyesoon's poetry, meaning often reveals itself precisely in the enigmatic. The texts open up as we follow their rhythm and read on and on; the images reveal themselves like signs that only become visible once the right direction has already been chosen.' Kim did not attend the ceremony in person but appeared via video link from Korea to express her gratitude. 'My deep thanks go to translators Park Sool and Uljana Wolf, the jury, HKW, Oliver Vogel of publisher S. Fischer Verlag, and to editors Madeleine and Matthias of the Haus fur Poesie for organizing the reading,' she said. The award recognizes both author and translator. It was jointly awarded to Kim and the collection's co-translators: Park Sool, a poet and philosophy professor at the University of Hildesheim known for his translations of Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Holderlin and Trakl; and Uljana Wolf, a poet and translator noted for her work on texts by Korean American poet Choi Don-mee. "Autobiography of Death" was first published in Korean in 2016. It consists of 49 poems inspired by the poet's collapse at a subway station in 2015 and her reflections on collective tragedies such as the Sewol ferry disaster and the MERS outbreak. The German edition was released in February by S. Fischer Verlag with support from the Daesan Foundation. The collection had previously garnered international acclaim in English translation by Choi Don-mee, winning the Griffin Poetry Prize in Canada in 2019 -- making Kim the first Korean to receive the honor. Kim also won Sweden's Cikada Prize in 2021 and the National Book Critics Circle Award in the US in 2024 for her latest poetry collection "Phantom Pain Wings." In 2022, she was named an International Writer by the Royal Society of Literature in the UK. The International Prize for Literature recognizes outstanding contemporary works in international literature and their first translation into German. Poetry translations have been eligible for consideration since 2023. Kim's win marks the first time a poetry collection has received the award. Notably, Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang was shortlisted for the prize in 2017 for "The Vegetarian." The award carries a total prize of 35,000 euros ($40,670) -- 20,000 euros for the author and 15,000 euros for the translator.
Korea Herald
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Poet Kim Hye-soon on creative power of translating literature
Award-winning poet discusses 'What Is Korean Literature to the International Reader?' at the 2025 LTI Korea Global Literature Forum Translated literature is a gift to the language it arrives in, acclaimed poet Kim Hye-soon said, describing it as the Korean language offering a present — 'like tossing a new pebble into the well of another language.' 'I think translating Korean literature isn't about elevating Korea's literary status. Rather, it's about expanding the boundaries of the target language. Translation is a reciprocal relationship, not a one-way transaction,' Kim said. 'We already know how much the boundaries of Korean have broadened through translations of foreign works — how our ways of thinking have deepened and diversified. I believe the same holds true in reverse.' Kim spoke at the 2025 LTI Korea Global Literature Forum during a wide-ranging onstage conversation with Jeffrey Yang, editor-at-large at New Directions, on the topic 'What Is Korean Literature to the International Reader?' New Directions has published two of Kim's recent English collections: 'Autobiography of Death' and 'Phantom Pain Wings,' both translated by Choi Don Mee. Fresh from a monthlong European book tour through Germany, Austria and the UK, Kim said conversations with international audiences had energized her in unexpected ways. 'Through these exchanges, I feel as though we're expanding the 'territory of poetry.' Maybe that's why we call out to poets from afar,' she said. Kim also reflected on the contrast between how literature is discussed at home and abroad. 'In Korea, I'm often asked about 'Korean literature' — where it should be heading, what its defining characteristics are — but honestly, I don't even know where 'my own literature' is headed.' 'Outside the country, however, I've always had the impression that people focus more on individual works rather than national categories. I can't recall being asked a question framed around nationality, and we don't approach their writers that way either.' While she's happy to recommend Korean poets when asked abroad and welcomes growing international interest in Korean literature, Kim noted that she has never thought of herself as writing 'Korean literature.' 'I've always just seen myself as doing 'literature,'' she said, adding that she hopes policymakers will move beyond broad national labels and show greater respect for each writer's individuality. 'Translation is creative act' Kim has been steadily gaining international recognition, winning numerous accolades worldwide. In 2019, she became the first Asian woman to win Canada's prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize. More recently, she was named an International Writer by the Royal Society of Literature in England in 2022, elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April, and shortlisted for Germany's international prize for literature this year. Despite these honors, Kim remains candid about her uncertainty over why her work resonates with readers abroad. 'That's the part I really don't understand. Whether in Korea or elsewhere, I don't know exactly why I have readers. Some may be drawn to the way the translation offers a familiar way of speaking, while others might be intrigued by its unfamiliarity. I think I fall into the latter group.' What has moved her most, however, is not the prizes but what happens to her translators. 'The most striking moments for me are when those who translated my poems later debuted as poets themselves. Some began writing poems while translating my work, opened up their own poetic worlds, published collections and went on to win major awards. That has been the most memorable part.' She cited Choi, her longtime English translator, who often says that translating Kim's poems sparked her own writing practice. 'Just as I discover my poems in the sound drifting through this world, I think there's a similar kind of discovery at work in poetry translation. Translation is not just word-by-word interpretation; it is a creative act.' Kim shared her views on the art of poetry translation itself. 'I believe that translating poetry begins with translating its form and rhythm,' she said. 'When translators ask me what I want most from them, I always tell them: 'Translate the rhythm.'' She also acknowledged the inevitable challenges and occasional mistranslations in the process. 'Sometimes a homonym might be misunderstood, for example, the word for 'tribe' was translated as 'lack,' or 'starting a pilgrimage' was rendered as 'ending a pilgrimage,'' she said. But she emphasized that translation is not about nitpicking such errors. 'I think of translation as translating the house the poet built,' she said. 'The mistakes I mention are more like a cup placed slightly askew on a shelf in that house, a small detail, but the house itself remains intact.'
Korea Herald
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Kim Hye-soon shortlisted for Germany's International Prize for Literature
Kim Hye-soon has been shortlisted for the International Prize for Literature awarded by the House of World Cultures (HKW) in Germany for her poetry collection "Autobiography of Death," published in German translation this February. HKW announced Wednesday the six finalists for this year's prize: Kim, Turkish German writer Dogan Akhanli, Canadian writer Sarah Bernstein, Ukrainian writer Anna Melikova, French writer Neige Sinno and American novelist Jesmyn Ward. The award is jointly presented to both the author and the translator. Kim's work was co-translated from Korean by Park Soo and Uljana Wolf, who have been named as finalists alongside her. "Autobiography of Death" was first published in Korea in 2016. The collection consists of 49 poems, inspired by the poet's collapse at a subway station in 2015 and her reflections on collective tragedies such as the Sewol ferry disaster and the MERS outbreak. The collection was translated into English by poet Choi Don-mee and won the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize in Canada in 2019, making Kim the first Korean recipient of the award. The award introduced the book as "a choir, each voice demanding a personal and therefore dignified death for itself. It celebrates both the fragile, enigmatic and unique inner world of each human being, and the connecting timelessness of cultural images, stories and worlds of thought." Established in 2009, the International Prize for Literature honors an outstanding work of contemporary international literature and its first translation into German. Since 2023, poetry translations have also been eligible. The prize carries a total of 35,000 euros ($39,000) -- 20,000 euros for the author and 15,000 euros for the translator -- and will be awarded in the summer of 2025 during a literary festival hosted by HKW. In 2017, Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang was also a finalist for the award with the German translation of her novel "The Vegetarian."
