Jeongrye Choi – Upcoming Interview

Cover of Instances by Choi JeongryeKTLIT has been in contact with Korean poet Jeongrye Choi, about an interview…. Her book of translated poems in English is “Instances” and here is a teaser and some biographical information.

Catkind

cats don’t grow to be tigers
as rose unfurls the blossom
thorns fiercely wait
there are tigers in all cats
petals roll like small, unfolded tongues
yellow eyeballs dizzy
as moonlight running through centuries
cats in their silver sleep
grind teeth and clench claws
cherishing the wild dreams of blood
look inside any cat and there!
the apricot
of tiger’s eye, shuddering
like an apricot tree crouched in by an eagle

 

At our request, Choi sent an updated short-bio:

Jeongrye Choi was born near Seoul. She holds a PhD from Korea University and has received a range of awards for her seven books (including Modern Literature Award). She participated in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program in 2006, and was a visiting writer at the University of California (Berkley) in 2009. English-language translations of her poems are published in ‘Free Verse’, ‘The Iowa Review’, ‘Text’, and ‘World Literature Today’, and her poems appear widely in Japanese and Korean literary journals. An English-language collection, ‘Instances’ (which she co-translated with Wayne de Fremery and Brenda Hillman) is published through Parlor Press. She currently teaches at Korea University .