Writers Centre Kingston and Korean Cultural Centre UK present a Korean Literature Night exploring Hye-Soon Kim’s Autobiography of Death
wEDNESDAY 23RD OctObER 2019 - 7pm / VENUE: Korean Cultural Centre UK
Event takes place at Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, London WC2N 5BW
Kingston-upon-Thames has the most populus Korean diaspora in all of Europe and Writers’ Centre Kingston is delighted to present a collaboration with London’s remarkable Korean Cultural Centre with a discussion group event that explores the extraordinary poetry collection 'Autobiography of Death' by Hye-Soon Kim.
The event will be a moderated discussion will take place about its contents and themes, creating something in between a workshop and a live event right in the heart of central London. https://kccuk.org.uk/en/programmes/korean-literature-nights/autobiography-death-hye-soon-kim/
Entrance Free - Booking Essential . Apply to info@kccuk.org.uk or call 020 7004 2600 with your name and contact details.
About the Book- Autobiography of Death - Kim Hyesoon’s poems “create a seething, imaginative under-and over-world where myth and politics, the everyday and the fabulous, bleed into each other” (Sean O’Brien, The Independent)
The title section of Kim Hyesoon’s powerful new book, Autobiography of Death, consists of forty-nine poems, each poem representing a single day during which the spirit roams after death before it enters the cycle of reincarnation. The poems not only give voice to those who met unjust deaths during Korea’s violent contemporary history, but also unveil what Kim calls “the structure of death, that we remain living in.” Autobiography of Death, Kim’s most compelling work to date, at once reenacts trauma and narrates our historical death―how we have died and how we survive within this cyclical structure. In this sea of mirrors, the plural “you” speaks as a body of multitudes that has been beaten, bombed, and buried many times over by history. The volume concludes on the other side of the mirror with “Face of Rhythm,” a poem about individual pain, illness, and meditation.
About the Author- Hye-Soon Kim Hye-Soon Kim, born in 1955, is one of the most prominent and influential contemporary poets of South Korea. She was the first woman poet to receive the prestigious Kim Su-yong and Midang awards, and has been translated into Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Swedish. Her most recent books include I'm OK, I'm Pig! and Poor Love Machine.
About the Moderator- Steven J Fowler Steven J Fowler is a writer and artist who works in poetry, fiction, theatre, film, photography, visual art, sound art and performance. He is lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature at Kingston University, teaches at Tate Modern, Poetry School and Photographer's Gallery. He is the director of Writers' Centre Kingston and European Poetry Festival.