Suji Kwock Kim

Suji Kwock Kim
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Yale College, Iowa Writers' Workshop, Seoul National University, Yonsei University
Genre	Poetry, Plays

Suji Kwock Kim (also S. K. Kim) is a Korean American poet-playwright.

Life

She was educated at Yale College, the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, Seoul National University and Yonsei University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and Stanford University, where she was a Stegner Fellow.

Her work has been published in The Best American Poetry, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, New Statesman, Irish Examiner, Slate, The Nation, The New Republic, The Paris Review, The London Magazine, Poetry London, Poetry Review and Poetry, recorded for BBC Radio, National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Genoa, and Radio Free Amsterdam, and translated into Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, Croatian, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, and Bengali.

Music and theatre

Choral settings of her poems, composed by Mayako Kubo for the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus, Chorusorganisation, Koreanische Frauengruppe Berlin, and Japanische Fraueninitiative Berlin, premiered at Pablo Casals Hall, Tokyo in December 2007. Vocal settings of her work, composed by Jerome Blais, premiered at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and were recorded by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in March 2007. It was later performed by the Solera Quartet at the Art Institute of Chicago, May 2019, and recorded by WFMT-Chicago. She is co-author of Private Property, a multimedia play showcased at Playwrights Horizons (NY), produced at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK), and featured on BBC-TV.

Awards

• The Nation/ Discovery Award
• Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets
• Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• Whiting Writers' Award
• Northern California Book Award/ Bay Area Book Reviewers Award
• Griffin International Poetry Prize shortlist
• Lucille Medwick Award from the Poetry Society of America
• two George Bogin Memorial Awards from the Poetry Society of America
• O'Donoghue Award from Munster Literature Centre, Ireland
• Clore Award from Poetry London, U.K.
• International Book & Pamphlet Award, U.K.

Works

• Notes from the Divided Country (Louisiana State University Press, 2003)
• Notes from the North (Smith/Doorstop, U.K., 2020)
• Private Property (multimedia play, Edinburgh Festival Fringe)
• "hwajon," "Flight," "Looking at a Yi Dynasty Rice Bowl" (texts for choral compositions by Mayako Kubo, Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus, 2007)
• "Occupation," "Fragments of the Forgotten War," "Montage with Neon" (texts for compositions for voice and piano by Jerome Blais, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2007 and Art Institute of Chicago, May 2019)

Anthologies

• American Religious Poetry, ed. Harold Bloom. (Library of America, 2007)
• American War Poetry: 1700-2020, ed. Lorrie Goldensohn. (Columbia University Press, 2021)
• Asian-American Poetry: The Next Generation. (University of Illinois Press, 2004)
• Backpack Literature, ed. Dana Gioia. (Pearson Longman, 2006)
• Berliner Anthologie (Alexander Verlag, in association with Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin, 2006)
• Best American Poetry 2018. (Scribner, 2018)
• Best American Poetry 2016. (Scribner, 2016)
• Century of the Tiger: 20th Century Korean Literature. (University of Hawaii Press, 2003)
• Contemporary American Poetry. (Penguin, 2004)
• Contemporary American Poetry in Russian Translation. (Dalkey Archive and OSI Publishers, Moscow, 2008, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts)
• Crossing State Lines: An American Renga. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011)
• Echoes Upon Echoes: New Korean American Writing, ed. Elaine Kim. (Temple University Press, 2003)
• The Future Dictionary of America, ed. Dave Eggers. (McSweeney's, 2004)
• The Griffin Prize Anthology. (House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 2004)
• Inside Literature. (Pearson Longman, 2007)
• An Introduction to Poetry. (Pearson Longman, 2016)
• The Koreas, Charles Armstrong. (Routledge, 2013)
• Language for a New Century: Contemporary Voices from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond. (Norton, 2008)
• Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century. (Sarabande, 2006)
• Lineas Conectadas: Nueva Poesia de los Estates Unidos. (Sarabande, 2006, in Spanish translation, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts)
• Literature: A Pocket Anthology. (Penguin, 2017)
• Literature: A Portable Anthology. (Macmillan/ Bedford St Martin's, 2021)
• Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. (Pearson Longman, 2019)
• Love is Strong as Death. (Penguin Australia-New Zealand, 2019)
• A Mingling of Waters. (Supernova P&D Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata, India, 2008, sponsored by the Kolkata Book Fair)
• The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators and Waiting Rooms. (Picador, 2004)
• Places of Poetry: Mapping the Nation in Verse (Poetry Society/ One World, U.K., 2020)
• Poet's Choice: Poems from the Washington Post (Harcourt, 2006)
• Poetry: A Pocket Anthology. (Penguin, 2014)
• Poetry For Students. (Thomson Gale, 2006)
• Poetry On Record, 1888-2006: 98 Poets Read Their Work. (Shout Factory/ Sony Music, 2006)
• Poetry 30. (University of West Virginia Press, 2005)
• Staying Human. (Bloodaxe, U.K., 2020)
• To Gather Your Leaving: Asian Diaspora Poetry. (Ethos Books, Singapore, 2019)

External links

• Suji Kwock Kim Website
• The Guardian Poem of the Week
• National Public Radio interview
• "Poet's Choice", Washington Post, Robert Pinsky, August 27, 2006
• Los Angeles Times "Drunk Metaphysics"
• Profile at The Whiting Foundation
• Griffin Poetry Prize biography
• Griffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip
• 2005 University of California at Berkeley video clip
• National Book Festival (Library of Congress) profile and video clip
• "Writing In the New Year; New Year at the Demilitarized Zone". New York Times. December 31, 2003.