Kim Sa-in

Kim Sa-in (The romanization preferred by the author according to LTI Korea^[1]) is a Korean poet.^[2]

Life

Kim Sa-in was born in Boeun, North Chungcheong Province and studied Korean Literature at Seoul National University. Following time in prison in the early 1980s, he began writing poetry and co- founded the magazine "Poetry and Economy." ^[3] He has taught creative writing at Dongduk Women’s University^[4] and Seoul University.^[5]

Work

Kim debuted in the journal Poetry and Economics (Shi wa gyeongje) in 1982, during the period of the military government’s oppressive rule. He chose to respond to the pain of the period rather than ignore it, as he made clear in the preface to his first poetry collection: “fragments of an ungoverned rage and pain tear at the heart. But by what other method could I have afforded food in the 70s and 80s?” He therefore tries to foreground “the human” in his poetry. His poems adopt a disciplined form, but the subjects described in them are people from the general walk of life, often deficient in character or even stupid-sounding. The poet thus confesses, “I feel the warmth of humanity more in naivete and clumsiness, rather than in perfection and smoothness.”^[6]

Kim defines writing poetry as "questioning things tirelessly." But he emphasizes that the poet should not only ask questions: he must also find answers and actively put them into practice. By the same token, reading poetry means to participate in the poem with one’s whole being, to become a part of the poem. Kim’s poetics involves engagement with the poem, both by the poet who writes and the reader who reads. Poetry without full participation has no meaning.^[7]

Awards

• Dong-yeop Creative Writing Endowment (1987)
• Hyeondae Literature Prize (2005)
• Daesan Literature Prize for poetry (2006)

Works in Korean (Partial)

Poetry

• Letter / Bam e sseuneun pyeonji (1999)
• Liking / Gamanhui joa haneun (2006)

Prose

• A Bowl of Hot Rice / Ddaddeuthan bap han geureut (2006)

References