Recipient of the 2026 Arts Council Korea Literature Fellowship
Kim Kyunghu writes poems on the life and silence between despair and absence.
"the sound of my words that didn't reach you disappearing into the darkness/(...)//When blood cannot become words/Lips are the cliff where all the blood in the body ends up/A cliff wrinkled in a million folds" —From "Lips" in Organ, Pipe, Cactus (Changbi, 2017)
1. Life
Kim Kyunghu was born in Seoul in 1971. Her childhood was spent in the midst of cities and the outskirts of cities undergoing industrialization and modernization, from Busan to Incheon to Seoul to Gyeonggi Province. She grew up observing how the countryside meets the urban, the countryside ways of her relatives compared to those of strangers from the city, and the rapid changes and conflict created by capital. Moving often, she had no time to make friends, and spent most of her time alone reading. She dreamed vaguely of becoming a writer, but had no idea of how that might be accomplished. At university, she elected to study German literature as her favorite writer was Franz Kafka. She joined a literary club on campus where she was introduced to the work of modern Korean writers and poets and literary theory, and began writing her first poems. Kim made her literary debut in 1998 when ten of her poems including "Hidden Walls" won the Hyundae Munhak New Writer's Award. She subsequently pursued further studies in German education and creative writing at graduate school. In addition to poetry, Kim is interested in children's and YA literature and has published books and poems for children, as well as books in the humanities.
2. Writing
Kim Kyunghu's poetry searches for the possibility of communication in between despair and loss. Constantly on the lookout for words that are hard to find and often hidden when living in a big city today, the poet's attempts are tenacious but often futile. And so the pulsing heat of her language is also imbued with deep melancholy, sadness, and isolation. Grotesque images of a claustrophobic world, silence, nightmares, and incidents of loss are also continuous motifs. Just as the violence and tragedy of life never stops, however, the poet's gaze never wavers. The despair following this introspection is not devastation, but merely part of the artist's relentless inner quest for growth. It is also an image, a narrative chasing how to expose the cryptic meaning of the world and explore its potential through language. The poet's frequent use of void and absence, blank sheets, and empty worlds, therefore, is an extreme acceptance of such emptiness and absence with her entire being, making it part of her body, rather than any kind of futility, defeat, or apathy. Sometimes wedged tight like "a cork," in dire straits comparable to "a cul-de-sac," agonizing over how "the last words of the glacier will melt away by the week after next," the poet's solitary body is laid out with words outside that of standard, conventional language, seeking out the cracks of this world. Hoping beyond hope to turn those cracks into language, into the only potential of this age.
Reference
Poems & Selected Works
My Words from That Day Don’t Come Back 그날 말이 돌아오지 않는다 (Minumsa Publishing Group 민음사, 2001)
Twelve Layers of Midnight 열두 겹의 자정 (Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 문학동네, 2012)
Organ, Pipe, Cactus 오르간, 파이프, 선인장 (Changbi Publishers, Inc. 창비, 2017)
One Dawn, I Was King Lear 어느 새벽, 나는 리어왕이었지 (Hyundae Munhak Publishing Co., Ltd 현대문학, 2018)
I Got Up to Cry 울려고 일어난 겁니다 (Moonji Publishing co., Ltd.문지, 2021)
(Co-author) Your Objects (공저) 당신의 사물들 (Hankyoreh Publishing 한겨레출판, 2015)
(Co-author) All the Things I Loved Were in Your Eyes (공저) 너의 눈동자엔 내가 사랑하는 모든 것이 있었다 (Namubench 나무옆의자, 2018)
(Co-author) My Heart and Mom Were Green 마음과 엄마는 초록이었다 (Nanda 난다, 2022)
Children's Books
Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther 괴테의 젊은 베르터의 슬픔 (Woongjin 웅진, 2012)
Alive or Dead? Alive! 살았니? 죽었니? 살았다! (Gilbut Inc. 길벗, 2014)
Goethe’s Bet with the Devil 괴테, 악마와 내기를 하다 (Tam 탐, 2017)
Autobiography of Gandhi 간디 자서전 (Woongjin 웅진지식하우스, 2019)
My Exploration of Cultural Heritage for Teens 10대들을 위한 나의 문화유산 답사기1~2 (Changbi Publishers, Inc. 창비, 2019)
My Exploration of Cultural Heritage for Teens 10대들을 위한 나의 문화유산 답사기3~4 (Changbi Publishers, Inc. 창비, 2020)
Metamorphoses 변신 이야기 (Munhakdongne Publishing Corp. 문학동네, 2022)
(Co-author) Be Jealous of King Sejong! 세종대왕을 질투하라! (Briends 브렌즈, 2013)
(Co-author) Why Did the Penguins Go to the Sea? 펭귄은 왜 바다로 갔을까 (Ggumgyeol 꿈결, 2014)
(Co-author) The Beans Rolled Around All Night밤새 콩이 굴러다녔지 (Geodneunsaram 걷는사람, 2020)
Profile information provided by the Arts Council Korea (ARKO)
LTI Korea 
DLKL 
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