Kim Hyesoon has published fourteen poetry collections in Korean and was the first woman to win the Kim Suyoung, Midang, Daesan literary awards in South Korea. Her international honors include the Griffin Poetry Prize from Canada and the Cikada Prize from Sweden, and her books have been translated into several languages. Kim was a creative writing professor at the Seoul Institute of the Arts for many years and has a Ph.D. in Korean Literature from Konkuk University.
Cindy Juyoung Ok is a creative writing lecturer at Wellesley College, poetry editor at Guernica magazine, and book reviewer for the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet. A recipient of recent fellowships from MacDowell, Lambda Literary, and Ucross, her translations of Kim Hyesoon’s poems have been supported by Bread Loaf, Banff Centre, and Hambidge Center, and a grant from Literature Translation Institute of Korea.