Washing a Myna by Hwang InChan translated by Eun-Gwi Chung
$25.00
Hwang provides us with a new poetic experience through the method of washing the language away, not putting clothes on it. A rare craftsman, he wields an art of erasure, dissolving myriad artistic forms. When the way of saying “just” becomes not an aesthetic oblivion but a poetic will, his poetry washes our eyes. For Hwang, the poetic method of “defamiliarization” is not merely a technique, but a world itself. In the defamiliarization of the familiar, the silence of the lost voice awakens beyond the bound of human voice. His poem is a poem of silence, a venture taking a step beyond quiet’s veil. — Kim Haengsook
About the Author
Hwang InChan: Born in 1988 in Anyang, South Korea. After graduating from the Department of Creative Writing at ChungAng University, he made his literary debut in 2010 debut through the Contemporary Literature New Artist Recommendation. Hwang’s poetry collections include Washing a Myna (2012), Heejee’s World (2015), Repetition for Love (2019), and Let’s Say This Is My Heart (2023). He has published the picture books Did You Say I Am Pretty? (2022) and When I’m a Hundred Years Old (2023). He won the 31st Kim Soo Young Literature Award for his first collection of poems, Washing a Myna, and the 66th Contemporary Literature Award for his work Image Photography.
About the Translator
Eun-Gwi Chung was born in Kyungju, South Korea. After getting her PhD at SUNY Buffalo, Chung has taught modern poetry and translation in Korea. Currently, she is Professor of the Department of English Literature and Culture at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. Chung has translated poetry both into Korean and into English, and published over thirty volumes of translated poetry. She is also the author of four collections of essays, including Let’s Go Strawberry Picking (2022) and Wonderful Moments of Starting Again (2023).
