Don Mee Choi is a markedly influential figure in contemporary experimental poetry, combining the visual, the documentary, and the lyrical in her highly acclaimed books. Choi’s Kor-Us Trilogy (Hardly War, DMZ Colony, and the forthcoming Mirror Nation) intertwines her family history with the troubled and complex modern history of South Korea and its long entanglement with the power and ambitions of the United States. 2024’s Katie Jacobson Writer in Residence, Choi has already received some of the highest honors a literary artist can achieve—the National Book Award for 2020’s DMZ Colony and a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of her work in poetry and in the field of translation, where she’s introduced many English readers to some of the most innovative poets working in South Korea today. This evening of immersion in Choi’s work at REDCAT reflects how she expands our understanding of what poetry can do, while challenging us to experience the many layers of personal and cultural experience we call history.

A conversation with Don Mee Choi and poet and translator Youna Kwak follows, with a reception and book signing in collaboration with Skylight Books.