Kim Kyung Ju
/South Korea, 1976
Kim Kyung Ju (1976, South Korea) is a Seoul-based poet and performance artist. He has written and translated over ten books of poetry, essays, and plays. He is the recipient of the Korean government’s Today’s Young Artist Prize and the Kim Soo Young Contemporary Poetry Award. Kim’s plays (poetic dramas) have also won numerous awards. Currently, arrangements are being made for an English version of his play Butterfly Sleep to be produced off Broadway in New York. Last year Kim teamed up with the renowned Korean rapper Mc Meta for a poetry/hip hop collaborative project called Poetic Justice. Kim also produces a literature podcast, is the founding member and organizer of the Penguin Rhyme Club reading series / poetry collective, curates art exhibitions highlighting foreign artists, and edits articles for the literature webzine Munjang. His most recent project is the musical Well Dying, a dark comedy about the elderly and mortality.
*The poet is coming to the festival with the support of LTI Korea.