I Am Not Korean

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Edited by Jon Thompson

Song Kyeong-dong is a social activist and a poet. He is surely the only Korean poet capable of writing a poem denying that he is Korean, being filled with shame on reading of the way Korean companies, having relocated their factories to Southeast Asia to profit from cheap labor, systematically exploit and abuse their underpaid workers, with sometimes tragic consequences. For decades, Song was a construction worker and at the same time a leading figure in all the great social protest movements of recent Korean history. This collection evokes many heroic protests and some tragic incidents, but the poet never loses his sense of humor and never loses sight of what is worthy of truly human sympathy. He can write a poem evoking the agonies of severe constipation with a wry smile, while other poems quietly evoke the suicides of workers in despair. Song's poems are records of a heroic commitment to social justice.

About the Author

Song Kyeong-dong has published five poetry collections: Honey Sleep, Answers to Small Questions, I Am Not Korean, I Will Write Again Tomorrow, and I Made a Dreaming Sound and Fell Asleep. He has also published a prose collection The Dreamer Is Arrested. He has received numerous literary awards, including the Shin Dong-yeop Literary Award, the Gosan Literary Award, the Cheon Sang-byeong Literary Award, and the Jo Tae-il Literary Award.

About the Translator

Brother Anthony of Taiz is Emeritus Professor in the English Department at Sogang University. He has published over seventy volumes of English translations of modern Korean literature.