Translating Mo'um
Description
Poetry. Asian American Studies. "Deft, edgy, dystopic, assiduous in their loathing of the famous fascination of the exotic, Cathy Park Hong's poems burst forth in searing flashes of ire and insight. She gives no quarter to either Korean or English. Without creative interference, without mistranslation, language to her is history's 'cracked' thorax, a resented 'dictation, ' and a constant personal embarrassment. Her poems are 'islands without flags, ' 'the ocean a slate gray/ along the wolf-hued sand.' TRANSLATING MO'UM is striking both for its stabbingly original, vinegary images and its ruthless honesty: Hong being that rare thing, a poet as rigorous in her self-scrutiny as in her cultural confrontations"-Calvin Bedient.
More details
Person
Born to Korean parents, Cathy Park Hong was raised in Los Angeles. She studied at Oberlin College before earning an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her debut, Translating Mo'um (Hanging Loose Press, 2002) received a Pushcart Prize, and Dance Dance Revolution (W. W. Norton, 2007) was selected for the Barnard Women Poets Prize by Adrienne Rich. She is also the author of the essay collection Minor Feelings (One World/Random House, 2020), which was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.