Kim Eon Hee

Kim Eon Hee (born July 20, 1953) is a South Korean poet. Born in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, she graduated from Jinju Girls' High School and the College of Education at Gyeongsang National University. She made her literary debut in 1989 by publishing ten poems, including "The Silent Country" (Goyohan Nara), in Contemporary Poetics (Hyundae Sihak). Kim Eon-hee is considered a poet who, alongside Kim Hyesoon and Choi Seung-ja, dismantled the conventions of traditional Korean lyric poetry. By constructing a bizarre and highly original poetic world, she has been dubbed the "Medusa of the Korean poetry scene" by critics and the media. As one of the poets who led the postmodern movement in Korean poetry since the 1990s, she is widely regarded as one of the leading figures of the Korean avant-garde poetry due to her unconventional and grotesque poetic imagery. The poet once described her own work by writing, "18 years to read, 18 years to forget". Kim has published a total of seven poetry collections, from her debut collection Trunk (1995) to her most recent work Horangmalko (2024). She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Oh Jang-hwan Literary Award, the Cheongma Literary Award, the Yi Sang Poetry Award, the Park In-hwan Literary Award, and the Poetry and Thought Literary Award.