Description
In her first collection, Suji Kwock Kim confronts a number of difficult subjects- colonialism, the Korean War, emigration, racism, and love. She considers what a homeland would be for a divided nation and a divided self: what it means to enter language, the body, the family, the community; to be a daughter, sister, lover, citizen, or exile.
In settings from New York to San Francisco, from Scotland to Seoul, her poems question ""what threads hold / our lives together"" in cities and gardens, battlefields and small towns. Across the no-man's-land between every ""you"" and ""I,"" her speakers encounter, quarrel with, or honor others, traveling between the living and the dead, between horror over the disastrous events of the past and hope for the future. Drawing upon a wide range of voices, styles, and perspectives, Notes from the Divided Country bears witness to the vanishing world.
About the Author
Suji Kwock Kim's poems have appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, Paris Review, New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, and on National Public Radio.
Reviews
"There's love and sadness at the root of these poems. There's also a bridge, a language that mends. Few will read [this book] and not be moved by its clarity of vision." - Yusef Komunyakaa, from his judge's citation; Whatever you meant to love, in meaning to You changed yourself: you are not who you are, Your soul cut moment to moment by a blade Of fresh desire, the ground sown with abandoned skins. And at your inmost circle, what? A core that is Not one. Poor fool, you are divided at the heart, Lost in its maze of chambers, blood, and love, A heart that will one day beat you to death. - from "Monologue for an Onion
Awards
Winner of Walt Whitman Award 2002.
Book Information
ISBN 9780807128732
Author Suji Kwock Kim
Format Paperback
Page Count 88
Imprint Louisiana State University Press
Publisher Louisiana State University Press
In settings from New York to San Francisco, from Scotland to Seoul, her poems question ""what threads hold / our lives together"" in cities and gardens, battlefields and small towns. Across the no-man's-land between every ""you"" and ""I,"" her speakers encounter, quarrel with, or honor others, traveling between the living and the dead, between horror over the disastrous events of the past and hope for the future. Drawing upon a wide range of voices, styles, and perspectives, Notes from the Divided Country bears witness to the vanishing world.
About the Author
Suji Kwock Kim's poems have appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, Paris Review, New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, and on National Public Radio.
Reviews
"There's love and sadness at the root of these poems. There's also a bridge, a language that mends. Few will read [this book] and not be moved by its clarity of vision." - Yusef Komunyakaa, from his judge's citation; Whatever you meant to love, in meaning to You changed yourself: you are not who you are, Your soul cut moment to moment by a blade Of fresh desire, the ground sown with abandoned skins. And at your inmost circle, what? A core that is Not one. Poor fool, you are divided at the heart, Lost in its maze of chambers, blood, and love, A heart that will one day beat you to death. - from "Monologue for an Onion
Awards
Winner of Walt Whitman Award 2002.
Book Information
ISBN 9780807128732
Author Suji Kwock Kim
Format Paperback
Page Count 88
Imprint Louisiana State University Press
Publisher Louisiana State University Press
