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Suji Kwock Kim

すじ・くぉっく・きむ

Suji Kwock Kim

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
unknown （Unknown）
Nationality
United States, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Religion
Unknown
Residence History
London, United Kingdom

Career

Occupations
poet, playwright
Active Years
2000-2024
Nominations
Griffin International Poetry Prize shortlist

Education

Yale University
Yale College
Country: United States
Yale College
University of Iowa
Writers' Workshop
Degree: MFA
Country: United States
Seoul National University
Literature
Country: South Korea
Yonsei University
Literature
Country: South Korea
Fulbright Scholar
Stanford University
Creative Writing
Country: United States
Wallace Stegner Fellow

Awards

Walt Whitman Award
2004
Work: Notes from the Divided Country
Category: First Book
Organization: Academy of American Poets
Result: winner
Addison Metcalf Award
2007
Category: Literature
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Letters
Result: winner
Whiting Writers' Award
2003
Organization: Whiting Foundation
Result: winner
The Nation/Discovery Award
Organization: The Nation
Result: winner
Lucille Medwick Award
Organization: Poetry Society of America
Result: winner
George Bogin Memorial Award
Organization: Poetry Society of America
Result: winner
George Bogin Memorial Award
Organization: Poetry Society of America
Result: winner
O'Donoghue Award
Organization: Munster Literature Centre
Result: winner
International Book & Pamphlet Award
Result: winner
Northern California Book Award / Bay Area Book Reviewers Award
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Notes from the Divided Country

2004 Poetry

A poetry collection exploring the division of Korea, war memory, and identity.

Korean divisionwar memoryhistorical trauma

Notes from the North

Poetry

Poetry collection themed on North Korea.

North Koreapolitics

Private Property

Multimedia play

Multimedia play co-authored and showcased at Playwrights Horizons and Edinburgh Fringe.

Adaptations
  • [Theatre] Private Property

Bibliography

  • Notes from the Divided Country
  • Notes from the North
  • Private Property
  • hwajon, Flight, Looking at a Yi Dynasty Rice Bowl
  • The Ministry of Truth Renames the Famine, Post-Nation
  • Occupation, Fragments of the Forgotten War, Montage with Neon

Adaptations

  • Private Property: produced at Edinburgh Fringe Festival
  • Choral settings of poems by Mayako Kubo, Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus
  • Vocal settings by Jerome Blais, performed at Art Institute of Chicago

Translations of Works

  • Translated into German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Croatian, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Bengali

Style & Themes

Literary Style
lyricalnarrativehistorical
Recurring Motifs
divisionfamineoccupationforgotten war

Legacy

Korean-American-British poet acclaimed for poetry on Korean division, recipient of prestigious awards including Walt Whitman and Whiting. Works translated widely and adapted for music and theatre.

Trivia

  • Her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were all born in what is now North Korea.
  • Her maternal great-grandfather co-founded the Korean Language Society during the Japanese occupation and became a linguistics professor and dean at Yonsei University.
  • Married Raymond Short in 2007.
  • Lives in London.