Myung Mi Kim (born December 6, 1957) is a

Korean American Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

noted for her

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

writings. Kim and her family immigrated to the United States when she was nine years old. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

and lectured for some years on creative writing at the

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

. She is currently Professor of English at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

. Timothy Yu places Kim in a group of Asian American poets at the close of the 20th century (also including

John Yau John Yau (born June 5, 1950) is an American poet and critic who lives in New York City. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1972 and his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in 1978. He has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, fiction ...

and

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge Mei-mei Berssenbrugge (; born October 5, 1947, in Beijing, China) is a contemporary poet. Winner of two American Book Awards, her work is often associated with the Language poets, Language School, the poetry of the New York School (art), New York ...

) who focused on "fragmentation, linguistic exploration, and cultural hybridity". Her work has been described as having the strongest influence on the direction of Asian American poetry throughout the 2000s. When asked about her relationship with the English language, she said, "Language acquisition ..has put on alert for me the way practices of language may contribute to producing

hegemonic Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one state over other states. In Ancient Greece (8th BC – AD 6th ), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' city-state over other city-states. ...

normative Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in ...

cultural practices. As a poet I am constantly thinking about this intrinsic problem and exploring modes of relating to and generating language that pluralize sense-making."

Themes

According to Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Kim's literary method is driven by the idea that "the forces that have displaced and moved bodies across the globe become legible when we track the traces of the lives they touched." Lee also says that ''Dura'', and much of Kim's work, demonstrates the motivated and partial nature of totalizing knowledge. Lee implies that Kim wants humans' actual relations to

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and time recognized as more complex than notions like

progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...

suggest.

Reviews

Edgar C. Knowlton, Jr. reviewed ''Dura'' positively in ''World Literature Today'', claiming that "the poet has mastered the intricacies of English". In a review of Josephine Nock-Hee Park's Apparitions of Asia, Timothy Yu referred to Kim as one of the most challenging writers in the Asian American canon but also as a "major writer". Steven G. Yao of Hamilton College notes, however, that Asian American writers such as

Li-Young Lee Li-Young Lee (李立揚, pinyin: Lǐ Lìyáng) (born August 19, 1957) is an American poet. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His maternal great-grandfather was Yuan Shikai, China's first Republican President, who attempted ...

Marilyn Chin Marilyn Chin (陈美玲) is a prominent Chinese American poet, writer, activist, and feminist, as well as an editor and Professor of English. She is well-represented in major canonical anthologies and textbooks and her work is taught all over th ...

David Mura David Mura (born 1952) is an American author, poet, novelist, playwright, critic and performance artist whose writings explore the themes of race, identity and history. In 2018, Mura has published a book on creative writing, ''A Stranger’s Jour ...

Kimiko Hahn Kimiko Hahn (born July 5, 1955) is an American poet and distinguished professor in the MFA program of Queens College, CUNY. Her works frequently deal with the reinvention of poetic forms and the intersecting of conflicting identities. Biography ...

, and

Timothy Liu Timothy Liu (born 1965 in San Jose, California) is an American poet and the author of such books as ''Bending the Mind Around the Dream's Blown Fuse'', ''For Dust Thou Art'', ''Of Thee I Sing'', ''Hard Evidence'', ''Say Goodnight'', ''Burnt Offeri ...

have received more popular and scholarly attention than Kim. In a review of ''Dura'', Sueyeun Juliette Lee called her poetry "beautiful in its percussive, incisively unflinching attention to language, and also in its gentle envelopment of the slightest sentiments." A ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' reviewer described ''Commons'' (2002) as her best book up to that point, saying the poems " rticulateour often hidden and difficult ties to each other". Yu favorably compared ''Commons'' and ''Penury'' (2009) with her first collection ''Under Flag'' (1991), writing that "Kim has sharpened and broadened her political critiques in response to an evolving landscape of global capitalism, disaster, terror, and violence."

Works

*''Under Flag'' - Kelsey St. Press, 1991, reprinted. 1998 and 2008 *''The Bounty'' - Chax Press, 1996, reprinted. 2000 *''Dura''- Sun & Moon Press, 1999 *''Spelt'' (with Susan Gevirtz) - a+bend press, 2000 *''Commons'' - Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002 *''River Antes'' - Buffalo: Atticus/Finch, 2006 *''Penury'' - Omnidawn Publishing, 2009 *''Civil Bound'' - Omnidawn Publishing, 2019

External links

Podcast-conversation between Myung Mi Kim and Kathryn Yusoff for Radio Web MACBA, 2022

EPC Home Page

UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Webcast
* Catalina CARIAGA's article "Desire and Predicament" from ''

Poetry Flash ''Poetry Flash'' (founded 1972) is a literary magazine and website based in the San Francisco Bay Area; it has been called "an institution in the Bay Area's literary culture". It publishes literary reviews, poetry, interviews, and essays as well as ...

'', n°233, Aug. 1992 now available online at

* Ed PARK's "Sound Bitten: Commons by Myung Mi Kim" from the ''Village Voice Literary Supplement'', New York, May 2002, at

* Jocelyn SAIDENBERG's "Review: Myung Mi Kim. The Bounty." ''ZERO: Writing Arts''

* Zhou XIAOJING's article "Possibilities Out of an Impossible Position: Myung Mi Kim's Under Flag". at

* Karl YOUNG's "Myung Mi Kim & Maureen Owen as of 1993". ''American Book Review'' 1993. at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Myung Ki 1957 births Living people South Korean emigrants to the United States University of Iowa alumni American writers of Korean descent San Francisco State University faculty University at Buffalo faculty

Themes

Reviews

Works

Further reading

External links

References