Poet Kim Hyesoon's 'Wing Phantom Pain' Wins National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry Category

Poet Kim Hye-soon's poetry collection 'Nalgae Hwansangtong' was selected as the winner in the poetry category at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards in the United States.

On the 21st (local time), NBCC announced 'Phantom Pain Wings,' the English version of 'Nalgae Hwansangtong,' as the winner in the poetry category at the '2023 NBCC Awards' held at The New School in New York, USA.

'Phantom Pain Wings' was the only translated work among the five finalists in the poetry category of this year's NBCC Awards. The other four competing works were 'All Souls' (Saskia Hamilton), 'The Gathering of Rogues' (Romeo Oriogun), 'The Receptionist' (Robin Schiff), and 'Fine Evidence' (Sharif Sharif).

Poet Kim Hye-sun [Photo by Yonhap News]

'Nalgae Hwansangtong' is Kim's thirteenth poetry collection. It was published by Munhakgwa Jiseongsa in 2019, marking the 40th anniversary of her literary debut. Translated by Korean-American poet Don Mee Choi, it was published in the United States last May and has received critical acclaim locally. Don Mee Choi has also translated Kim Hye-soon's previous poetry collections, including 'Poor Love Machine,' 'Trash of the World, Unite!,' and 'Autobiography of Death' into English. Among these, 'Autobiography of Death' won the International category of the prestigious Canadian literary award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, in 2019.

'Phantom Pain Wings' was also included in The New York Times' list of 'Top 5 Poetry Collections of the Year' at the end of last year.

The NBCC is a nonprofit organization founded in 1974 in New York by book critics working in the American media and publishing industries. Since 1975, it has annually selected the best books written in English in the United States from the previous year and awards prizes in categories such as poetry, fiction, nonfiction, biography, and translation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.